THESIS - DTIC · 2011-05-13 · methodology. The thesis discusses the elements of knowledge...

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THESIS

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IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS A STRATEGIC INITIATIVE

by

Joseph DiGiacomo

December 2003

Thesis Advisor: David V. Lamm Second Reader: Donald Summers

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4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE: Implementing Knowledge Management as a Strategic Initiative

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13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) This research is intended as an implementation guide for managers to apply knowledge management as a

strategic initiative within the contracting element of a major system command. The study incorporates the four-pillar model of knowledge management developed by Dr. Michael Stankosky. The four pillars within the model are: leadership, organization, technology and learning. Knowledge management was one of five strategic initiatives in the overall strategic plan, which was developed using Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard methodology. The thesis discusses the elements of knowledge management as well as how contracting organizations can be improved by incorporating knowledge management as a strategic initiative.

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14. SUBJECT TERMS Knowledge Management, Contracting, Procurement, Strategic Initiative

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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS A STRATEGIC INITIATIVE

Joseph DiGiacomo

Civilian, United States Army B.S., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1974

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

from the

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL December 2003

Author: Joseph DiGiacomo

Approved by: David V. Lamm

Thesis Advisor

Donald Summers Second Reader

Douglas A. Brook, Ph.D. Dean, Graduate School of Business and Public Policy

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ABSTRACT

This research is intended as an implementation guide for managers to apply

knowledge management as a strategic initiative within the contracting element of a major

system command. The study incorporates the four-pillar model of knowledge

management developed by Dr. Michael Stankosky. The four pillars within the model are:

leadership, organization, technology and learning. Knowledge management was one of

five strategic initiatives in the overall strategic plan, which was developed using Kaplan

and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard methodology. The thesis discusses the elements of

knowledge management as well as how contracting organizations can be improved by

incorporating knowledge management as a strategic initiative.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1 A. BACKGROUND ..............................................................................................1 B. OBJECTIVE ....................................................................................................1 C. RESEARCH QUESTIONS.............................................................................2 D. SCOPE OF THE THESIS...............................................................................2 E. LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY....................................2 F. CHAPTER OUTLINE.....................................................................................3

II. BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.....................................5 A. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT .................................................................5

1. Background ..........................................................................................5 2. Definition of Knowledge Management...............................................5 3. Theory of Knowledge Management ...................................................6 4. Verification of the Key Elements........................................................7 5. Application of the Four Pillars of Knowledge Management ...........7

a. Leadership .................................................................................8 b. Organization..............................................................................9 c. Technology ..............................................................................10 d. Learning ..................................................................................11

6. Summary.............................................................................................12 B. CONTRACT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE ....................12

1. Overview .............................................................................................12 2. Structure .............................................................................................13

C. REVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION........................................................13 1. The CECOM Mission ........................................................................14 2. The CECOM Acquisition Center .....................................................14

D. CHAPTER SUMMARY................................................................................15

III. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MODEL ......17 A. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................17 B. THE ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................18

1. External Environment and Influences .............................................18 2. Internal Environment........................................................................21

C. THE FOUR PILLARS MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ...........................................................................................23 1. Background ........................................................................................24 2. Knowledge ..........................................................................................25 3. Three Pillars Model ...........................................................................25 4. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline................................................26 5. Other Models......................................................................................26 6. Difficulty with Developing a Model..................................................26 7. Key Elements, sub-elements and Disciplines Associated with

knowledge management ....................................................................27

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8. Findings of Dr. Calabrese..................................................................29 D. FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS AND SUBJECTS ESSENTIAL FOR

ACQUISITION PROFESSIONALS............................................................29 1. Historical View of the Contracting Professional.............................29 2. Competencies, Skills and Disciplines Required by Contracting

Professionals .......................................................................................30 3. General Business Skills......................................................................32 4. Foundational or Core Acquisition Competencies ...........................33 5. Subject Matter Competencies...........................................................34 6. Task Level Competencies ..................................................................35

E. CHAPTER SUMMARY................................................................................36

IV. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MODEL ..............................................37 A. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................37 B. THE ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................37

1. External Environment and Influences .............................................37 2. Internal Environment...............................................................................39

C. STANKOSKI’S FOUR PILLARS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ...........................................................................................39 1. Leadership ..........................................................................................39

a. Strategic Themes.....................................................................41 b. The Cause and Effect Story ....................................................42 c. The Strategic Theme View......................................................45 d. A Strategic Culture .................................................................46

2. Organization.......................................................................................47 3. Technology..........................................................................................52 4. Learning..............................................................................................54 5. Summary.............................................................................................57

D. PROCESS FLOW..........................................................................................57 1. High Level Functional Architecture.................................................58

a Operations ...............................................................................60 a. Vital and Critical Information................................................61

E. MEASURABLE CORE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES..............................62 1. Metrics ................................................................................................63 2. Critical Knowledge Needed to Achieve Strategic Objectives ........63

F. CHAPTER SUMMARY................................................................................65

V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................67 A. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................67 B. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................67

1. Knowledge transfer within the Department of Defense is becoming more and more critical. ....................................................67

3. Effective Knowledge Management Systems are part of an overall strategic plan that satisfies mission and vision goals of the organization..................................................................................68

4. The knowledge, skill and abilities required to successfully perform the duties associated with contract management are an integral part of the contract professional’s job..........................68

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5. There does not appear to be a direct correlation between the effort expended on knowledge management and the value of knowledge management. ...................................................................69

C. RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................69 1. Supervisors at all levels should determine through face to face

discussions and review of contract files the level of experience for every employee under their supervision. ...................................69

2. Organizations should be encouraged to link knowledge transfer between employees to the strategic goals of the organization. .......................................................................................69

3. Organizations should periodically reassess their knowledge management strategies to ensure continued efficacy......................69

4. Contracting activities should foster an environment where experienced contracting officers and contract specialists want to transfer their knowledge to newer employees and those without the experience.......................................................................70

5. Organizations should be encouraged to take a systems approach to developing a knowledge management system............70

D. ANSWERS TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...............................................70 1. How can contracting organizations be improved by

incorporating knowledge management as a strategic initiative? ..70 2. What is knowledge management? ....................................................71 3. What are the elements of a knowledge management system? .......71 4. Can the benefits of knowledge management be measured

within the Communications Electronics Acquisition Center?.......72 5. How can the results of this study be generalized and applied to

other acquisition organizations and processes? ..............................72 E. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH...........................................72

APPENDIX A. NCMA’S CONTRACTING PRINCIPLES FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES ...........................75 A. NCMA’S CONTRACTING PRINCIPLES FOUNDATIONAL,

SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES ...............75 B. NCMA’S ACQUISITION PLANNING/STRATEGY FOUNDATIONAL,

SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES ...............76 C. NCMA’S CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION FOUNDATIONAL,

SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES ...............77 D. NCMA’S SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT

MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES ..................................78 E. NCMA’S GENERAL BUSINESS FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT

MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES ..................................79

LIST OF REFERENCES......................................................................................................81

INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST .........................................................................................85

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to the Naval Postgraduate School faculty for making a personal goal a

reality. A special thank you to Dr. David V. Lamm and Don Summers for their help and

support on this thesis effort.

Lastly, I want to thank by wife, Susan, and our children, Felicia and Franklin.

Without your love, support and continued encouragement this goal would not have been

possible.

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I. INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND

Despite their best efforts, most organizations continue to squander what may be

their greatest asset in today’s knowledge economy - the wealth of experience, ideas, and

insights that are scattered across or deeply embedded within their organizations.

Capitalizing on those intellectual resources and using existing knowledge to improve

performance or combining strands of knowledge to create something new can help

organizations respond to an array of challenges from the effects of downsizing to those of

retirements.

It is noted that budget cuts and downsizing appear to be the continuing mantra

within the Department of Defense (DoD). Over the next five years almost fifty percent of

the DoD workforce will be eligible for retirement. Budget cuts and retirements will

portend leaner organizations within DoD. On a positive note, these conditions will also

heighten interest in knowledge management. Within the next five years it is imperative

that the transfer of skills and corporate knowledge be propagated within the Department

of Defense to maintain the military’s ability to protect the citizens of the United States

and her allies.

Notwithstanding the potential brain drain within DoD, it is more important than

ever that the full benefits of an organization’s knowledge need to be transferred to all its

employees for the organization to be truly effective. In the corporate world it is

recognized that the energy expended on knowledge management initiatives are helping

corporations to achieve satisfied customers. Recent DoD initiatives in the knowledge

management area signify that DoD also recognizes knowledge management benefits.

When one considers the increased workload and reduced workforce it is essential

that every DoD worker know all they’re capable of knowing.

B. OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to provide useful, relevant, timely, and transferable

information to the Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) Acquisition Center

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about knowledge management to improve performance of the entire organization. This

study will provide an overview of how the organization can adjust to meet future

Department of Defense requirements. Finally, it will provide suggestions for other

organizations to provide added value strategies for the organization and its customers.

C. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The primary research question is:

• How can acquisition processes be improved by incorporating knowledge

management as a strategic initiative?

In support of the primary research question, the following supplementary

questions will be examined:

• What is knowledge management?

• What are the elements of a knowledge management system?

• Can the benefits of knowledge management be measured within the

Communications-Electronics (CECOM) Acquisition Center?

• How can the results of this study be generalized and applied to other

acquisition organizations and processes?

D. SCOPE OF THE THESIS

This research is intended as an implementation guide for managers to apply

knowledge management processes to the contract element within the acquisition

community of a major system command. This thesis is limited to the study of

incorporating knowledge management to a DoD contracting organization in a disciplined

way through the use of strategic planning. Also included is a discussion of simple

measures to assess the benefits of incorporating knowledge management into a DoD

major contracting organization. Further, the implementation guide is restricted to

contracting organizations at a major system command.

E. LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY

To answer the research questions presented in the previous section, a qualitative

research approach was employed that included a comprehensive literature review and

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workplace observations based on my 28 years with the Department of Defense. Initially,

the research was conducted using literature that consisted of books, magazine articles,

other library information resources, applicable General Accounting Office reports as well

as acquisition and knowledge management related websites. The body of knowledge that

is utilized within the CECOM Acquisition Center was identified. Also identified were

knowledge management processes and structures operating within CECOM Acquisition

Center.

F. CHAPTER OUTLINE

It is intended that this thesis will be organized into five chapters. The first chapter

will serve as an introduction. The second chapter provides background with an overview

of knowledge management and strategic planning. The third chapter executes the

research methodology. The fourth chapter develops a model for implementation and the

fifth chapter provides conclusions, recommendations and potential areas for future study.

G. BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH

This research paper will aim to shift the focus within the acquisition community

from strictly obtaining data to transforming data into knowledge and transferring that

knowledge throughout an organization. Focus will be on the human interactions that

exist and those that need to be developed to compete in an ever more downsized

acquisition community. Additionally, it is intended to provide useful, relevant and timely

information to other organizations struggling with these issues. This research develops a

plan with potential for migration from the present to a more efficient and measurable

usage of knowledge.

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II. BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This chapter provides background of Knowledge Management, the Contract

Management Body of Knowledge and the structure and mission of the CECOM

Acquisition Center.

A. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

1. Background

Knowledge management is not new. Although the terminology, knowledge

management, was not widely used until the mid-1990s, it has been studied by

philosophers and practiced for centuries. Rod Newing retraced the origins and evolution

of knowledge management starting with the cuneiform language in about 3,000 B.C. and

going through the main discoveries that made the management of knowledge possible

(papyrus, parchment, the invention of the printing press, etc.) [Ref 1] Documenting the

more recent boom of the Knowledge Management (KM) movement began with Karl Erik

Sveiby in the 1980s [Ref 2], followed by a 1991 Fortune magazine article, entitled:

Brainpower” by Tom Stewart. [Ref 3] The foundations of modern Knowledge

Management were developed by Karl Wiig (three volume work published in 1993 and

1994), [Ref 4] Nonaka and Takeuchi [Ref 5] and Davenport and Prusak. [Ref 6]

Knowledge management is important because of the transformation of our

economy. Since 1991, the United States has been moving from an industrial economy to

an information-based economy. In the information economy, innovation, service,

quality, speed and knowledge sharing are the defining factors. [Ref 7] Ideas and

knowledge are its principal raw materials. In an information economy environment,

intellectual capital becomes a critical metric for determining the economic value of an

organization.

2. Definition of Knowledge Management

There are many definitions of KM. Two are selected:

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• “Knowledge management is the systematic, explicit, and deliberate

building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize an

enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and return from its

knowledge assets.” [Ref 4]

• “Knowledge management is the process of capturing a company’s

collective expertise wherever it resides – in databases, on paper, or in

peoples’ heads – and distributing it to wherever it can help produce the

biggest payoff.” [Ref 8]

3. Theory of Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management, especially if Knowledge Management is to be

applicable, universal, and relevant across all enterprises, and rightly claim its place

among academic disciplines in this knowledge age, knowledge management requires

theoretical support. In 1999, Dr. Michael Stankosky believed we were ready for a theory

of knowledge management. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a theory as “a

formulation of apparent relationships or underlying principles of certain observed

phenomena which have been verified to some degree.” Stankosky began to survey what

was being said, written, and practiced around the world in Knowledge Management.

Relationships began to form. These relationships were collected and grouped under four

major headings: leadership/management, organization, technology and learning. Under

each of those major headings many key elements were documented, such as business

culture, vision sharing, strategic planning resource allocation, performance criteria, tacit

and explicit knowledge understood, virtual teams, communities of practice, innovations

encouraged, recognized and rewarded; data warehousing, groupware, intelligent agents,

neural networks, decision support systems, etc. The listing also encompassed many

disciplines, such as computer science, operations research, management science,

psychology, organizational development, epistemology, anthropology, philosophy,

systems engineering, etc. What emerged was a strong multidisciplinary theory. The

critical aspect of the theory was first to ensure it had the right elements identified, second

was to come up within accepted means of validation and third was to obtain legitimacy

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by seeking degree–granting approval from a major university in order to attract students

and faculty to do the research and studies. One key point to stress is that Stankosky was

not researching or studying the study of knowledge, but how to manage knowledge. The

operative word in Knowledge Management is management. [Ref 10]

In the literature review of Knowledge Management, many authors dealt with the

subject of knowledge and learning – more so than with transferring, sharing, and

leveraging the knowledge already obtained within the enterprise. Stankosky was not

competing with or replacing epistemology, the theory of the origins, nature, methods and

limits of knowledge, nor the disciplines found in educational curriculum on how one

learns (pedagogy). When a person is hired, they are hired for the intellectual capital they

already possess, and the organization ensures that the intellectual capital is audited,

captured, shared when needed and the individual knowledge is turned into organizational

knowledge. In addition to the management aspects of Knowledge Management, the

identification and integration of all those key elements is the essence of a successful

Knowledge Management system, according to Stankosky’s theory. [Ref 10]

4. Verification of the Key Elements

The validation process chosen by Stankosky was to validate through survey. The

listing of four groupings and key elements were sent to a select group of industry

Knowledge Management experts and practitioners. They were asked to verify the critical

role of the groupings and key elements for success, and list others not included. The

results supported the four groupings and elements. While one survey and 40 dedicated

Knowledge Management researchers do not make a theory, Stankosky has a start on

validating his theory. He has in place the mechanism to research further, and is operating

under the legitimacy of a degree-granting Knowledge Management program, with 40

dedicated Knowledge Management researchers, both faculty and students. [Ref 10]

5. Application of the Four Pillars of Knowledge Management

The new business environment demands foresight, superior performance,

innovation and adaptation, rather than traditional emphasis on optimization. Effective

and complete planning for enterprise Knowledge Management is critical. The

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“Architecture of Enterprise Engineering,” developed by Stankosky and associates of the

George Washington University Institute of Knowledge Management, has been

implemented and proven in the operational environment. The four enterprise engineering

pillars are leadership, organization, technology, and learning in support of enterprise-

wide Knowledge Management initiatives. In application, the pillars represent critical

success factors for Knowledge Management implementation. To achieve a basic entry

level Knowledge Management program, all four pillars must be addressed. Here’s a brief

summary of the four pillars as they apply to the reality of Knowledge Management

implementation: [Ref 10]

a. Leadership

Leadership develops business and operational strategies to survive and

position for success in today’s dynamic environment. Those strategies determine vision,

and must align knowledge management with business tactics to drive the value of

knowledge management throughout the enterprise. Leadership establishes and

implements the strategy and nourishes the culture and climate, which the strategy

necessitates. Leadership interacts with the environment to position itself for success.

Focus must be placed on building executive support and knowledge management

champions. Knowledge management systems require a champion or leader who can

provide strong and dedicated leadership needed for cultural change.

Sub-elements of Leadership:

• Business Culture

• Strategic Planning, including Vision and Goal setting

• Climate

• Growth

• Segmentation

• Communications

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b. Organization

The value of knowledge creation and collaboration should be intertwined

throughout an enterprise. The organizational structure must support the strategy.

Operational processes must align with the knowledge management framework and

strategy, including all performance metrics and objectives. While operational needs

dictate organizational alignment, a Knowledge Management system must be designed to

facilitate knowledge management throughout the organization. Operational processes

must be aligned with the new vision while redesigning the organization and identifying

key levers of change, including roles and responsibilities. Introducing knowledge

management requires organizational change, and knowledge management inevitably acts

as a catalyst to transform the organization’s culture. The increasing value placed on

highly capable people, rising job complexity and the universal availability of information

on the Internet are fundamental changes contributing to the move by organizations to

leverage knowledge management solutions. In order to begin changing the organization,

knowledge management must be integrated into the business processes. The right

business processes and performance management systems must be strong enough to deal

with turbulence yet flexible enough to adapt to change.

Sub-elements of Organization:

• Business Process Re-engineering, including processes and

procedures

• Metrics

• Management By Objective

• Total Quality Management and Leadership

• Workflow

• Communications

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c. Technology

Technology enables and provides all of the infrastructure and tools to

support Knowledge Management within an enterprise. While cultural and organizational

changes are vital to achieving a Knowledge Management strategy, a lack of proper tools

and technology infrastructure can lead to failure. Any technical solution must add value

to the process and achieve measurable improvements. Properly assessing and defining

Information Technology capabilities is essential. The Gartner Group defines ten

technologies that collectively make up full-function Knowledge Management. The

functional requirements that enterprises can select and use to build a Knowledge

Management solution include:

• Capture and store

• Search and retrieve

• Send critical information to individuals or groups

• Structure and navigate

• Share and collaborate

• Synthesize

• Profile and personalize

• Solve or recommend

• Integrate with business applications and

• Maintenance

No technology product meets every requirement, and before selecting a

solution, enterprises need to clearly define their Knowledge Management strategy, scope

and requirements, and perform product evaluations to identify technology products that

effectively meet their needs.

Sub-elements of Technology:

• E-Mail

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• On-Line Analytical Processing

• Data Warehousing

• Search Engines

• Decision Support

• Process Modeling

• Management Tools

• Communications

d. Learning

The best tools and processes alone will not achieve a Knowledge

Management strategy. Ultimately, people are responsible for using the tools and

performing the operations. Creating organizational behavior that supports a Knowledge

Management strategy will continue long after the system is established. Organizational

learning must be addressed with approaches such as increasing internal communications,

promoting cross-functional teams, and creating a learning community. Learning is an

integral part of knowledge management. In this context, learning can be described as the

acquisition of knowledge or a skill through study, experience, or instruction. Enterprises

must recognize that people operate and communicate through learning that includes the

social processes of collaborating, sharing knowledge and building on each other’s ideas.

Managers must recognize that the knowledge resides in people, and knowledge creation

occurs in the process of social interaction and learning.

Sub-elements of Learning:

• Innovation versus Invention

• Intuition

• Learning Community

• Virtual Teams

• Shared Results

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• Exchange Forums

• Communications

6. Summary

It is evident that the need for knowledge management translates throughout the

entire enterprise. It is not a separate function characterized by a separate Knowledge

Management department or a Knowledge Management process; it must be embedded into

all of the organization’s business processes. Knowledge management is crucial to

achieving permanent performance improvement and innovation. Efficient knowledge-

intensive core processes and a fundamental architecture must be established to effectively

initiated and implement Knowledge Management. The four pillars clearly provide

architecture.

B. CONTRACT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

1. Overview

A Body of Knowledge (BOK) is one of the essential requirements of any activity

desiring to be accepted as a profession. A true body of knowledge is representative of an

entire profession, including subsets, and is non-proprietary in nature. The purpose of the

contract management body of knowledge is to: (a). Describe the environment in which

the acquisition management professional will be working; and (b). Define the knowledge,

skills, abilities, and interrelationships necessary to successfully perform the full range of

tasks and duties required of Acquisition Management professional.

The National Contract Management Association (NCMA) developed the contract

management body of knowledge by benchmarking tasks and duties that are currently

being performed by practitioners in the functions that together comprise the acquisition

management environment. NCMA performed their benchmarking process in conjunction

with other organizations and associations involved in the acquisition management

profession. The top-level outline is attached. A detailed outline is published periodically,

the last in September 2002. [Ref 10]

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2. Structure

The knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the tasks and

duties associated with Contract Management are an integral part of the Acquisition

Management profession. The NCMA Body Of Knowledge has the following top-level

taxonomy. They are:

• Contract Principles – fundamentals of acquisition that all contracting

professionals must comprehend.

• Preaward – activities and events required planning for and awarding a

contract.

• Contract Administration – issues that arise during the performance of a

contract.

• Subspecialties – those areas that require additional specialized

knowledge.

• General Business – portions of other disciplines relevant to contract

management.

Under this top level the charts in Section II depict these areas with two additional

levels of sub-classification for each area. They provide a vehicle for one to readily

assimilate the relationship among the various elements. At lower levels, the classification

scheme requires some arbitrary allocations in order to make the assignments mutually

exclusive. In addition, many tasks at the lower levels require knowledge and

comprehension of the other parts of the BOK.

C. REVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION

The organizational structure of the Communication Electronic Command

(CECOM) and the CECOM Acquisition Center (CECOM AC) were reviewed.

Headquarters CECOM is located at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey and is a major

subordinate command of the Army Materiel Command, which is located in Alexandria,

Virginia.

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1. The CECOM Mission

The CECOM mission is fully defined in CECOM Regulation 10-1, is detailed

below:

To exercise life cycle integrated management, project

management, and systems acquisition, including research,

development, engineering, product assurance, fielding,

testing, production, materiel acquisition, readiness, and

integrated logistics support of assigned DOD/Army tactical

strategic and sustaining based information technology;

command, control, communications, computers and

intelligence; electronic warfare, sensors (IT/C4IEWS)

systems and equipment. [Ref 11]

To fulfill this mission, the CECOM Fort Monmouth elements consist of the

Commanding General and his staff (i.e., Resource Management, Personnel, Legal,

Corporation Information, etc.), the U.S. Army Garrison Commander and his staff (i.e.,

Department of Public Works, Transportation, Garrison Budget Housing, etc.) and five

Centers (Logistics and Readiness; Systems Management; Research, Development and

Engineering; Software Engineering and Acquisition). In addition, this mission is

supported by four Program Executive Officers (PEOs): Command, Control,

Communications systems Tactical (C3T); Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors

(IEW&S); Enterprise Information Systems (EIS); and Aviation. These PEOs are

supported by a significant number of Program Managers (PMs), both physically located

at Fort Monmouth and elsewhere.

2. The CECOM Acquisition Center

The CECOM Acquisition Center is headquartered at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey

with primary subsidiary offices in Washington, D.C. and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. There

are several small remote offices in the United States. The Acquisition Center provides

acquisition services in support of PEOs and the five Centers of CECOM. Within the

CECOM AC are six Sectors; each led by a GS-15 Chief reporting to the Deputy Director,

who reports to the Director. There are three “buying” sectors physically located at Fort

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Monmouth. The primary subsidiary offices in Washington, D.C. and Arizona are also

buying sectors. New Jersey also has an Acquisition Process Business Sector.

D. CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter provided background information on Knowledge Management, the

Contract Management Body of Knowledge and the structure and mission of the CECOM

Acquisition Center. The information provides is the foundational information upon

which the balance of the thesis is based. Definitions of Knowledge Management

definitions were provided; the theory of knowledge management was presented, along

with the verification of key elements. Dr. Michael Stankosky’s four pillars of

Knowledge Management were presented. The four pillars are: Leadership, Organization,

Technology and Learning. The Contract Management Body of Knowledge was

presented. A Body of Knowledge is one of the essential requirements of any activity

desiring to be accepted as a profession, and that is also true for contracting professionals.

The NCMA Body Of Knowledge has five top-level areas: Contract Principles, Preaward,

Contract Administration, Subspecialties, and General Business. Under these top level

areas are two additional levels of sub-classification for each area. The chapter concluded

with a description of the Communications Electronics Command and the CECOM

Acquisition Center.

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III. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

MODEL

A. INTRODUCTION

This chapter will lay the foundation for a Knowledge Management Model. It will

also identify foundational subjects, essential to the acquisition professional as well as the

skills and competencies of those professionals. The source of this knowledge is through

literature examination. To do an examination of the literature as it relates to both Dr.

Michael Stankosky’s Knowledge Management model and the foundational subjects and

skills essential to acquisition professionals, this chapter is organized in the following

manner: overall environmental influences; Stankosky’s four pillars (Leadership,

Organization, Technology, and Learning); and finally the foundational subjects and skills

essential to acquisition professionals.

Research shows that the average knowledge worker now spends approximately 25

percent of his or her day looking for information either internally or externally. [Ref 12]

Anything that can reduce this effort or increase the quality of the information acquired

would be helpful. Secondly, there is simply more content out there today than can be

processed by organizations. The Microsoft intranet site, for example, now makes 2.2

million documents available to its staff. [Ref 13] “Our ability to store and communicate

information has far outpaced our ability to search, retrieve and present the information.”

[Ref 14] Third, organizations are realizing that they could, and should, be doing more

with the content that they have. Although most are still unable to leverage the data they

have, and cannot turn the content into knowledge and results, this remains a strong vision

for them. [Ref 15] In reality, many organizations have significant content gaps on their

intranet and Internet sites, which need to be filled. Fourth, the technology available to

manage different types of content is improving and converging. In years past, different

software was used to manage documents, web pages and digital assets. Today, the lines

between these tools are blurring. Today’s integrated software is moving towards the

possibility of managing an entire organization’s capabilities. The long-term vision for

18

this integrated software includes improved decision-making, better utilization of

information and the collection of competitive intelligence.

B. THE ENVIRONMENT

The environmental influences for a KM professional and acquisition professional

are similar. There are social, political, governmental and economic influences on these

professionals. Influences can be categorized as either external or internal.

1. External Environment and Influences

The external environment is everything outside the organization. The national

and international situation definitely influences the external environment. In this post-

Cold War world, it is obvious that we are living in dangerous times. The United States is

fighting a war on terrorism, which began on 11 September 2001, and the war is still

ongoing. At present, there is no end in sight to this war. While fighting this war, the

United States continues to strengthen its defense posture to protect the nation's interests,

and to assure its lead role in global affairs. Shortly after his inauguration, President Bush

called for a review of all U.S. military capabilities and how best to achieve the necessary

transformation to meet the new challenges of the 21st Century. The new security

environment requires a military force that is balanced to counter both conventional and

unconventional threats. The United States is developing and fostering new and innovative

technologies that will ultimately support the war fighter. These technologies are

developed and then integrated into current and future weapon systems being developed

and fielded by the 21 Program Executive Officers within the armed forces. Delay in

development of new innovative technologies can jeopardize war fighters’ lives,

especially during combat. Within the U.S. forces, the U.S. Army is racing to find

solutions to the current threats it sees here and overseas. Most of today’s Army weapons

use Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) technologies and our adversaries are extremely

capable of using the same COTS technologies to defeat last years weapon. Compounding

the problem of rapidly developing and fielding new technologies is the reduced quantity

of acquisition workforce employees.

It has been stated in numerous reports that the DoD acquisition workforce will

lose potentially large numbers of civilian baby-boomers when they become eligible to

19

retire from the DoD in the near term. Fifteen consecutive years of downsizing, base

realignments and closures, budget reductions, and an aging workforce have significantly

changed the overall DoD civilian workforce. In their report, number GAO-01-565T,

released on 29 March 2001, GAO stated that between 1989 and 1999, the Department of

Defense reduced its civilian workforce by more than 403,000 positions, from 1,117,000

in 1989 to the estimated 714,000 in 1999. [Ref 16] This decrease represents a 36 percent

reduction. Then President Clinton’s fiscal year 2001 budget request projected additional

reductions in DoD civilian workforce; down to a level of 637,500 by FY 2005. Overall,

these reductions equate to a cumulative reduction of 43 percent from the fiscal year 1989

level to the fiscal year 2005 projection. The same report noted there was a strong shift

toward an older workforce. While an older workforce has more experience, it portends

that the workforce will be eligible for retirement in greater number. Not surprisingly, 58

percent of the workforce will be eligible for early or regular retirement by 2006. Since

1989, there was a 69 percent drop in the number of civilians with less than five years of

Government service, but only a 4 percent drop in the number of civilians with 11 to 30

years of Government service. As of September 1999, the last year that figures from the

GAO are available, only 6.4 percent of the DoD civilian workforce was under the age of

31, compared to 17 percent in 1989. The net effect is a workforce that is unbalanced by

age and experience and that puts orderly transfer of institutional knowledge at risk. [Ref

16]

To address this potentially difficult situation, in FY 2000, the Offices of the

Under Secretaries of Defense (OUSD) for Personnel and Readiness and Acquisition,

Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) sponsored a Task Force, the Acquisition Workforce

2005 Task Force, to address the anticipated wave of retirements that could begin as early

as 2005. The Task Force compiled a report, “Shaping the Acquisition Workforce of the

Future,” recommending 31 initiatives in the areas of human capital strategic planning,

recruiting and hiring, career development, workforce management and quality of life.

Since this report was published in October 2000, AT&L has put a major thrust behind

human capital strategic planning, recognizing that the majority of actions taken in other

areas, such as recruiting and hiring, hinge on the successful implementation of DoD’s

human capital strategic planning. Through this planning process, initiatives or actions

20

were identified to “shape” the workforce for the future by addressing the gaps identified

between the current workforce and the future desired workforce. The recommendations

of the Acquisition Workforce 2005 Task Force are being implemented by each of the

Directors of Acquisition Career Management and the OUSD (AT&L) through a number

of workforce improvement initiatives in the areas of recruiting, career development,

retention, and workforce management. The General Accounting Office (GAO) has

reviewed and reported progress, affirming that the Department has moved forward in

laying the foundation for shaping the future workforce. Several of the initiatives and best

practices are integrated into the Acquisition Workforce Civilian Personnel Demonstration

Project. On 7 November 2003, Congress passed the FY 2004 National Defense

Authorization Act, which authorized a new personnel management system for the entire

Department of Defense to cope with the challenges of the future. Furthermore, to ensure

that the workforce is highly skilled and fully qualified, the Defense Acquisition

University (DAU) is modernizing it and reengineering training for the critical career

fields of contracting and program management. At the same time, DAU is also preparing

to add new training for sustainment, technology management, and facilities engineering,

as well as continuous-learning training to keep knowledge and skills up-to-date. In

addition, OUSD (AT&L) continues to work to institutionalize human capital strategic

planning for the DoD Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) workforce.

Consistent with the approach recommended by the GAO, each Military Department and

four of the Defense Agencies prepared human capital strategic plans for their AT&L

workforce upon concluding the second annual cycle in May 2002. In October 2002, USD

(AT&L) issued a policy memorandum that established an annual Human Capital

Strategic Planning (HCSP) process for the DoD AT&L workforce, stating that: “HCSP

should result in a comprehensive set of human resource management policies and

practices that align the structure, culture, and characteristics of the workforce with the

organization’s strategic intent.” The strategic intent of the organization is to both identify

the “business” of the organization and how that business is to be carried out. Thus,

HCSP is strategic in nature and identifies the future desired workforce. In a companion

effort, the Department now prepares manpower plans for its AT&L workforce that

incorporate the results of human capital strategic planning. Both efforts are attempting to

21

ensure a future workforce with the right numbers of people with the right skills. OUSD

(AT&L) is compensating for the loss of experience as more workforce members reach

retirement eligibility by using a marketing and recruiting pilot program. The purpose of

the pilot program is to demonstrate the effect of implementing a marketing strategy

focused on mid-career private sector employees. It will allow local managers to see how

long each step of the recruiting and hiring process takes to help identify points of

optimum improvement. It will also showcase some benchmark practices to improve

processes and reduce the time it takes to hire. The data collected from the pilot will be

disseminated to help managers throughout the acquisition system and form the impetus

for other improvements for our Human Resource partners.

2. Internal Environment

The same demographics that are impacting the DoD as a whole are also affecting

the CECOM Acquisition Center workforce. From 1990 to the present, the Acquisition

Center has experienced a 56 percent increase in the total dollars awarded as well as a 200

percent increase in the number of actions over $25,000. However, during the same time,

employee count decreased by 58 percent, from 1180 to the current level of 485. This is

seen in detail in Figure 1 below. [Ref 17]

CECOM Acquisition Center Contracting/Personnel Trends

FY 90 - FY 03

42003730 3386 34294393

5850

1180 907 773 503 485

13102

8176

53274314

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

FY90 FY93 FY96 FY00 FY03

Contract Actions Over $25K Total Obligations (in $M) Civ & Mil Personnel

Figure 1. Contracting and Personnel Trends

22

In terms of retirement eligible employees, the CECOM Acquisition Center could

potentially lose 90 percent of its workforce within the next ten years. The years in

service chart, Figure 2, shows that the Acquisition Center’s potential losses of

experienced personnel due to retirements

CECOM Acquisition Center Years of Service

05

10152025303540

<5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 >41

Years of Service

% o

f Em

ploy

ees

Figure 2. CECOM Acquisition Center Years of Service

For her Naval Postgraduate School Thesis, Kimberly Frey, demonstrated two

important related statistics. First, the largest cohort of DoD employees is over 55 years

of age, and 70 percent of all employees are over 46 years of age. Second, there are a

small number of employees below the age of 40. Just like the DoD as a whole, the

CECOM AC faces a shortfall in the number of younger employees readily available to

step into the positions vacated by retiring personnel. [Ref 17]

The Director of the CECOM Acquisition Center, Mr. Edward G. Elgart, is quoted,

“During the next five to ten years, there will be tremendous turnover within the Army

Acquisition Community. It is imperative that the CECOM Acquisition Center pursues

ways by which more experienced but retirement eligible employees can convey some of

the vast, experiential knowledge of our veteran acquisition workforce to newly hired, or

newly promoted, contracting personnel.” [Ref 18]

23

C. THE FOUR PILLARS MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

This section presents information from the literature review regarding the key

elements within Dr, Stankosky’s four pillars model. Stankosky’s model is based on four

pillars, or key elements. The four pillars, or key elements are: Leadership, Organization,

Technology and Learning. These four pillars represent key elements critical to

Knowledge Management programs, where all four key elements form a disciplined

systems approach to an integrated framework encompassing all facets of enterprise-wide

Knowledge Management programs. Figure 3 is Stankosky’s KM model.

Figure 3. Stankosky’s Four Pillar Knowledge Management Model [Ref 9]

M U L T I P L E D I S C I P L I N E S

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTThe Architecture of Enterprise Engineering

Systems Engineering Organization Development Organization BehaviorSystems Management

E-mailOLAPData WarehousingSearch EnginesDecision SupportProcess ModelingManagement ToolsCommunications

TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGY

BPR- Processes- ProceduresMetricsMBOTQM/LWorkflowCommunications

ORGANIZATION

ORGANIZATION

Business CultureStrategic Planning- Vision and GoalsClimateGrowthSegmentationCommunications

LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

IntuitionInnovation vs.

InventionLearning

CommunityVirtual TeamsShared ResultsExchange ForumsCommunications

LEARNING

LEARNING

Environmental Influences

Social

Political Governmental

Economic

Knowledge Management – Enterprise Engineering

24

1. Background

In 1999, Dr. Francesco Calabrese attempted to prove that the then “fuzzy branch

of management science” called knowledge management was not a fad. He began with the

premise that managing an enterprise’s knowledge resources can be more effectively

achieved through the systematic use of a delineated framework of key elements, which

design and implement effective knowledge management programs, processes and

initiatives. He explored the four pillars of Stankosky’s knowledge management model

through workshops and a limited review of knowledge management literature. Based on

his limited study, Calabrese, a) validated the existence of the four pillars, b) expanded on

the pillar’s sub-elements, and c) confirmed the disciplines supporting the pillars. While

Calabrese concluded that all four pillars were found in the literature and were validated as

all necessary by the workshop participants, he expected that the four pillars would be

found to co-exist “harmoniously” in relatively four equal parts. Instead, he found that the

literature exposed a strong imbalance toward the use of technology and tools for the

knowledge management enterprise practices assessed. A further expanded study was

conducted in 2000. The study in 2000 again validated the existence of the four key

elements, and statistically supported their perceived values and relative importance.

Calabrese’s research methodology was a multi-part questionnaire sent to 600 potential

participants, and completed by 240 industry and government participants. Responses to

the questionnaire captured the respondents’ inputs in the context of their Beliefs,

Practices, and Preferences for the four key elements. The results of Calabrese’s research

reflected the utility of the four-pillar key element model for use in the assessment and

implementation of effective enterprise-wide Knowledge Management programs. [Ref 19]

In addition to analyzing questionnaire results, Calabrese reviewed a number of

alternate models of knowledge management from available literature on knowledge

management. What follows is a synopsis of knowledge and Calabrese’s review of

existing models for knowledge management that were available in CY 2000.

25

2. Knowledge

The main subject of a knowledge management system is knowledge. A fairly

extensive compilation of materials was complied by Drs. Charles Despres and Daniele

Chauvet in February 2000. What follows in Figure 4 is a brief summary of the many

definitions, descriptions and taxonomies regarding knowledge. Knowledge is:

1. The cutting edge of organizational success (Nonaka, 1991)

2. The engine transforming global economics (Bell, 1973, 1978)

3. Leading us toward a new type of work with new types of workers (Blackler, Reed

and Whitaker, 1993)

4. The element that will lead to the demise for private enterprise capitalism

(Heilbruner, 1976)

5. The sum total of value-added in an enterprise (e.g., Peters, 1993)

6. The “mobile and heterogeneous [resource that will end the] hegemony of financial

capital [and allow employees

to] seize power” (Sveiby & Lloyd, 1987:39)

Knowledge Results in:

1. The “learning organization” (Mayo & Lank, 1995)

2. The “brain-based organization” (Harari, 1994) “Intellectual capital” (Stewart, 1994)

3. “Learning partnerships” (Lorange, 1995)

4. Obsolete capitalist economies and radically different societies (Drucker, 1993)

Conclusion:

Knowledge is fast becoming a primary factor of production (e.g. Handy, 1989, 1994;

Peters, 1993; Drucker, 1992) Figure 4. Knowledge Definition/Description [Ref 20]

3. Three Pillars Model

This model uses the term “pillars,” however; the three pillars refer to capturing,

appraising, and synchronizing knowledge related activities from a foundation of creating,

manifesting, using, and transferring knowledge. This knowledge management model was

26

not considered by Calabrese to be all encompassing since it did not display a disciplined

systems approach. [Ref 2]

4. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline

In 1987, the notion of a “learning organization” was considered a fad. Peter

Senge changed that notion with his book, entitled The Fifth Discipline. Senge identified

“…systems thinking, mental models, personal mastery, shared vision and team learning

and dialogue as inescapable elements in building learning organizations.” (Senge, 1990).

Senge’s “learning organization” is essentially integrated as the Learning key element

within Stankosky’s four pillar framework. [Ref 21]

5. Other Models

No other “model” was discernible as being comparable to the framework

postulated by Stankosky. More importantly, no other “model” that surfaced from the

literature was structured to take a disciplined systems approach to the integration of a

defined framework encompassing all facets of an enterprise-wide knowledge

management program. [Ref 19] My review of the literature through CY 2003 validates

Calabrese’s conclusion that a comparable framework to Stankosky’s does not exist.

6. Difficulty with Developing a Model

As Calabrese states:

The vast number of disciplines, best practices, and methodologies that are often haphazardly tied to knowledge management programs create the fad perception. A solution to solve the fad perception is to use systems thinking which is a disciplined approach for seeing the entire system. Systems thinking is derived from systems analysis, systems management and systems engineering. Ultimately it is necessary to conceive, plan, design, test, implement, evaluate, modify and reiterate to seek ideal knowledge management programs composed of systems for: identifying, acquiring, storing, disseminating, communicating, maintaining, updating, modifying and staying abreast of knowledge – the “human faculty” for taking intelligent and timely action on behalf of enterprise goals and objectives. Secondly, systems thinking is also consistent with creating a ‘blueprint’ for use of the four pillar key element framework that can be applied in a systematic and repeatable manner to produce high quality, effective enterprise-wide knowledge management programs. These programs must manage the timely sharing of

27

pertinent knowledge with the correct decision makers, throughout an Organization and in concert with the enterprise’s strategic and operational visions and goals. To truly succeed, these programs must have the visible support and follow through by the Leadership of the enterprise, and exist in an environment of open knowledge sharing and Learning, facilitated by the best Technology tools and methods. [Ref 19]

7. Key Elements, sub-elements and Disciplines Associated with

knowledge management

Table 1 delineates key elements, sub-elements and disciplines associated with

knowledge management. The depiction in Table 1 adds to the credibility that the

knowledge management programs, systems, and initiatives incorporated into the four-

pillar framework are firmly based in classically accepted scientific disciplines.

28

KM’s Disciplines, Key Elements and Representative Key Sub-Elements Key Elements& Disciplines Representative Key Sub-elements Technology/Tools Data Warehousing; Disciplines: Database Management SW; Computer Science Multimedia Repositories; Computational Group Ware; Linguistics Decision Support Systems; Operational Research Expert Systems; Electrical Engineering Corporate Intranet; Math/Statistics Speech Understanding; Logic Business Modeling Systems; Intelligent Agents; Neural Networks; etc. Organizational Culture Process Workflows; Disciplines Operating Procedures for Knowledge Sharing; Psychology Business Process Reengineering (BPR); Operations Research Management By Objective (MBO); Organizational Total Quality Management (TQM); Development Metrics Standards; Philosophy Hierarchical, Centralized or Decentralized; Sociolinguistics Matrix Type Organization; Open/Sharing; Closed/Power Based; Internal Partnering vs. Competing Type Culture Leadership/Management Strategic Planning Disciplines Vision Sharing; Operations Research Specific and general Goals and Objectives; Management Science Executive commitment; Psychology KM program tied to metrics; Philosophy Formal KM roles in existence; Logic Tangible rewards for use of KM; Linguistics Knowledge sharing Management Information Systems Behavioral Profiling Learning Enterprise Tacit and Explicit Knowledge; Disciplines Management support for continuous learning; Cognitive Psychology Capturing, organizing and disseminating knowledge; Organizational Virtual Teams; Development Exchange forums; Systems Engineering Communities of Practice; Management Philosophy Innovation encouraged/recognized/rewarded Personal Mastery Mental Models Shared Vision Team Learning Table1. KM Disciplines, Key Elements & Representative Key Sub-Elements

29

8. Findings of Dr. Calabrese

Calabrese found through literature review and statistical analysis of the

participants’ survey responses to paired questions that a) the existence of the four key

elements (Leadership, Technology, Organization and Learning) was validated, b) the

study identified multiple, recognized disciplines supporting each of the four key

elements, c) the study expanded the inventory of key sub-elements under the key

elements, and d) it documented a framework of key elements and key sub-elements,

which provide a blueprint for a disciplined systems approach to designing and

establishing integrated, enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, programs and

initiatives. [Ref 19]

D. FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS AND SUBJECTS ESSENTIAL FOR

ACQUISITION PROFESSIONALS

This section begins with an historical view of the of the contracting professional

and then moves on to the competencies, skills and disciplines required for the current and

future contracting professional.

1. Historical View of the Contracting Professional

Today’s environment bears little resemblance to the 1980s. In the 1980s, DoD

funding and personnel resources were increasing. Then President Reagan was building

America’s arsenal to thwart the “evil empire;” his telling description of the former Union

of Soviet Socialists Republics. The contracting professional’s main job was perceived by

many to be prescriptive; that is to apply, interpret and quote volumes of statutes, rules,

regulations and policies. The ability to read, retain and interpret volumes of data was

keys for success for contracting professionals. [Ref 22] Those laws, regulations and

policies were also applied more stringently. If the regulations said, “you shall,” you did.

If the regulations said, “you shall not,” you did not. The job of the contracting

professional was to fully protect the Government’s interest. Contracting professionals

back then did that by interpreting contract clauses and regulations and preparing contracts

and modifications that benefited the Government. It was perceived by most contracting

professionals that industry was interested in profit, and only in profit. The contracting

30

professional earned his or her living by ensuring that industry did not have an advantage

over the Government.

Contracting professionals were not necessarily skillful or knowledgeable in

market research, nor did they have general knowledge or experience with the

marketplace. The human relations knowledge skills were not necessary to be a successful

contract specialist. Many contracting officers and contract specialists were not skilled

negotiators, which is difficult to believe since negotiation has always been a major part of

a contract professional’s job. Where the contracting professional always had the power

to influence contractors, they used their influence based on reliance on the stringent

application of the regulations and policy that supported their position. Contracting

Officers are the only Government officials with the authority to bind the Government.

While the above generalizes the contracting professional’s past position, it is not

intended to infer that all contracting personnel from the 1980’s lacked the skills required

by today’s contracting professional. What should be understood is that the contracting

professional of the 1980’s required a limited skill set.

2. Competencies, Skills and Disciplines Required by Contracting

Professionals

Today’s Contracting Officer/Specialist and those of the future require an

expanded set of competencies, skills and disciplines to be successful in the changing field

of acquisition. The emphasis today is not on regulations and prescriptive measures to

apply the regulations, but innovation or innovative uses of the regulations. The

contracting professional is not expected to be the last line of defense against profit-

motivated industry. Instead, today the contracting professional needs to be a facilitator,

team leader, and, when appropriate, team member. The ability to understand business

practices and management techniques are skills required of the modern contracting

professional. No longer is the “us against them” mentality; and win-lose outcome the

rigueur of the day. The ability to deal with shrinking resources while workload increases,

means greater emphasis on communication skills, more involvement in the early stages of

the acquisition process, an ability to manage, and not just police, and the ability to

transfer knowledge to entry level employees is critical skills necessary for today’s

31

contracting professional. A contracting professional who is educated and skilled in the

disciplines of the commodities and services they purchase can provide a more efficient

process and better understand the nuances of emerging business techniques. That person

is someone who will be successful in the current and future high-pressure career of

acquisition.

The future contracting professionals need to possess the correct skill sets in order

to assume the responsibility for purchasing and negotiating materials, equipment, and

supplies from a variety of world wide diversified vendors. They must have a thorough

understanding of the supply chain management function and inventory control systems.

The ability to apply sound business judgment in compliance with applicable regulations

is an absolute requirement for the future success of Government acquisition. The future

contracting professional must have the ability to utilize systems thinking because it is

ultimately necessary to conceive, plan, design, test, implement, evaluate, and modify the

processes to obtain the best-value deals for the end user – the warfighter. It is not good

enough to just analyze market conditions and develop procurement strategies that reduce

total life cycle cost and improve quality of incoming goods. They must be able to

establish processes and teach the next generation to determine the most desirable, and

best value, suppliers among the competition. That is a difficult task since each vendor

has both strengths and weaknesses and each entry-level employee has different initial

skill sets. By improving and honing these skills and abilities, the contracting professional

will be better equipped to accomplish the mission for the ultimate benefit of the

warfighter of today and tomorrow. The most important long-term benefit is for current

and future contracting professionals to share their knowledge within their community.

Sharing knowledge will shorten the time for new employees to learn new skills and will

allow professionals to collaborate and innovate better solutions.

The National Contract Management Association (NCMA) has identified three

broad contract management competencies, or areas of knowledge that can be enhanced

through continuing education and developed through practice. In their published “Guide

to the Contract Management Body of Knowledge (CMBOK) 1st Edition” released in

September 2002, NCMA identified technical, conceptual and human relations knowledge

as keys to be a successful contract manager. Technical knowledge is demonstrated

32

through day-to-day accomplishment of specific contract management tasks, like

preparing contracts and modification, analyzing contract terms and conditions, and

analyzing customer requirement and supplier capabilities. According to NCMA technical

knowledge is obtained and enhanced through completion of degree programs, certificate

programs, professional continuing education and specialized programs. Conceptual

knowledge relates to how well the contracts professional visualizes the contract

organization in terms of organizational goals. According to NCMA, conceptual

knowledge is the ability to visualize the big picture, articulate global concerns and act

toward the attainment of organizational goals. Note, however, that NCMA did not

identify methods to acquire conceptual knowledge. Human relations knowledge focuses

on the interpersonal aspects of contract management. This competency reflects itself in

generating cooperative relationships between the entire team; from the multiple

disciplines within DoD to include the suppliers. Generating the cooperative working

relationships requires strong communication skills.

Entry level contracting business managers must have familiarity with a variety of

the procurement concepts, practices and procedures. Each entry-level business manager

will have to rely on personal experience and judgment to plan and accomplish

organizational and customer goals. However, the rationale for their decisions and the

processes they use should be rooted in a disciplined approach. The future business

manager will need to perform a variety of complicated tasks within an environment

where a wide degree of creativity and latitude is necessary and expected. The knowledge

and skills that will allow the future contracting professional to perform the above outlined

tasks are divided into four cascading categories, (1) general business skills, (2)

foundational, or core acquisition competencies, which include the foundational

disciplines that underlie those competencies and (3) task level competencies. [Ref 10]

3. General Business Skills

General business skills are the generic skills, which individuals need in order to

be members of a flexible, adaptable, and competitive workforce. Without these generic

business skills members are virtually unqualified to operate successfully in a business

environment. These are the skills that are absolutely necessary to promote life long

learning since they form the basic building blocks for all other specialized skills. This

33

study has reviewed the six key general business skills identified by Kimberly Frey in

2001 and believes they are still valid. [Ref 18] The six general business skills include the

following:

• Communication skills both verbal and written;

• Application of numbers consisting of the ability to apply mathematics and

statistics;

• Information technology and computer competency;

• Working with others involving teams, customers, and competitors;

• Financial analysis consisting of accounting, economics and finance;

• Problem solving to include locating, analysis, and providing solutions.

A quote from Kimberly Frey’s Thesis, entitled: “ The Changing Face of the

Contracting Professional in the Department of Defense” follows:

Other organizations echo these identified skills and suggest other

necessary general business. The National Association of Purchasing

Management’s Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies, Lehigh

University conducted a survey of 700 chief purchasing officers of large

U.S. firms. The following skills for purchasing professionals were deemed

“must haves”: interpersonal communication, customer focus, decision-

making ability, analytical and negotiation skills, conflict resolution skills,

flexibility, problem-solving skills and the ability to influence and

persuade. [Ref 23]

4. Foundational or Core Acquisition Competencies

Foundational acquisition competencies listed within NCMA’s CMBOK are broad

areas of knowledge, which encompass contracting principles, acquisition planning and

acquisition strategy, contract administration, specialized knowledge, and general

business. General Business includes management, marketing, operations, accounting,

economics, quantitative methods and finance. Underlying those broad knowledge areas

34

are the disciplines of operations research, logic, psychology, philosophy, sociolinguistics,

management science, management information science, organizational behavior, and

management philosophy. In order to exercise good business judgment within the

acquisition field, members require several additional core acquisition skills. As a

profession, the acquisition field contains a unique body of knowledge, which must be

mastered. It should be highlighted that without the necessary general business skills, the

foundational competencies skills could not be developed, let alone utilized in the

performance of one’s duties. Core acquisition competencies are developed into skills and

skills give an individual the ability to perform their day-to-day tasks in the acquisition

field in order to conduct DOD business in the manner that is critical to achieving best-

value acquisitions while simultaneously serving all stakeholders. Core acquisition skills

further serve as basic building blocks to obtaining advanced and specialized acquisition

skills. In addition to the foundational competencies addressed by NCMA, presented

below are a few also important skills necessary for the contracting professional of today

and the future:

• An understanding of the principles of supply chain

management;

• A grasp of the fundamentals of project management

including trading off risk, cost, quality, and timeliness

through cost/benefit and tradeoff analyses;

• An understanding of how to work in high-performance

teams;

• Knowledge of the fundamentals of defining requirements;

• Competency at working with information and abstract

concepts.

5. Subject Matter Competencies

Cascading from the foundational competencies NCMA defines subject matter

competencies as a subset of the foundational competencies. These are the knowledge

35

areas that contracting professionals need to know and demonstrate to be effective in daily

activities. To illustrate an example of the cascading from foundational competencies to

subject matter competencies the foundational competency contracting principles is

cascaded into subject mater competencies. [Ref 10]

Contracting principles

Standards of conduct

Laws and regulations

Socioeconomic

Contract structures

Contracting methods

Contract financing

Intellectual property

6. Task Level Competencies

Further cascading from the subject matter competencies NCMA defines task level

competencies as a subset of subject matter competencies. These are the more specific

knowledge areas that contracting professionals need to know and demonstrate to be

effective in daily activities. To illustrate an example of the cascading from subject level

competencies to task level competencies the subject matter competency standards of

conduct is cascaded into task level competencies. [Ref 10]

Standards of Conduct

Ethics

Conflict of Interest

Improper Practices

36

E. CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter laid the foundation for a Knowledge Management Model. It

also identified foundational subjects, essential to the acquisition professional as well as

the skills and competencies of those professionals. The source of this knowledge was

through literature examination. The chapter began with an examination of the

environment, both external and internal, and then the four-pillars model of Knowledge

Management, which included Leadership, Organization, Technology, and Learning. The

chapter ended with the disciplines and competencies required for contracting professional

of today and the future as well as the foundational subjects and skills essential to

acquisition professionals.

37

IV. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MODEL

A. INTRODUCTION

The elements of a Knowledge Management System are discussed within this

chapter. This Knowledge Management System is developed for the CECOM Acquisition

Center; however, this is a model that, hopefully, can be applied to any DoD procurement

organization that has a similar mission. The model chosen to implement knowledge

management is based on the model developed by Dr. Michael Stankosky. There are four

basic elements within Stankosky’s Knowledge Management System model: (1)

delineating the environment, (2) designing in Stankosky’s Four Pillars, (3) determining

the measurable core strategic objectives, and finally, (4) determining process flows.

When properly designed, the output should be a Knowledge Management System that fits

the culture and supports the organization’s mission objectives. What follows is a more

in-depth understanding of the four elements. [Ref 9]

B. THE ENVIRONMENT

The first step is to delineate the environment of the organization, both external

and internal. Chapter III fully explored the external and internal environment and is not

repeated here. Instead, a summary of the external and internal environments is presented.

1. External Environment and Influences

The external environment is everything outside the organization. Beginning with

the big picture, the United States is fighting a war on terrorism. While fighting this war,

the United States continues to strengthen its defense posture to protect the nation's

interests, and to assure its lead role in global affairs through transformation of the

military. The United States is developing and fostering new and innovative technologies

that will ultimately support the war fighter. These technologies are developed and then

integrated into current and future weapon systems developed and fielded by Program

Executive Officers within the Armed Forces. Delay in developing or fielding new

innovative technologies can jeopardize war fighters’ lives. Most of today’s Army

weapons use Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) technologies and adversaries are

extremely capable of using the same COTS technologies to defeat last year’s weapon.

38

Compounding the problem of rapidly developing and fielding new technologies is the

reduced quantity of acquisition workforce employees. Fifteen consecutive years of

downsizing, base realignments and closures, budget reductions, and an aging workforce

have significantly changed the overall DoD civilian workforce. The current DoD

workforce is unbalanced by age and experience and that puts orderly transfer of

institutional knowledge at risk.

To address this potentially difficult situation, the Offices of the Under Secretaries

of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics

recommended 31 initiatives in the areas of human capital strategic planning, recruiting

and hiring, career development, workforce management and quality of life. AT&L put a

major thrust behind human capital strategic planning and initiatives or actions to “shape”

the workforce for the future through gap reduction. The General Accounting Office

(GAO) affirmed that DoD has moved forward in laying the foundation for shaping the

future workforce. Several of the initiatives and best practices are integrated into the

Acquisition Workforce Civilian Personnel Demonstration Project. On 7 November 2003,

Congress passed the FY 2004 National Defense Authorization Act, which authorized a

new personnel management system for the entire Department of Defense to cope with the

human capital challenges of the future. In addition, the Defense Acquisition University

(DAU) is modernizing and reengineering training for the critical career fields of

contracting and program management. At the same time, DAU is also preparing to add

new training for sustainment, technology management, and facilities engineering, as well

as continuous-learning training to keep knowledge and skills up-to-date. OUSD (AT&L)

continues to work to institutionalize human capital strategic planning for DoD

Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) workforce. In October 2002, USD

(AT&L) issued a policy memorandum that established an annual Human Capital

Strategic Planning (HCSP) process that should result in a comprehensive set of human

resource management policies and practices that align the structure, culture, and

characteristics of the workforce with the organization’s strategic intent. In a companion

effort, the Department prepares manpower plans for its AT&L workforce that

incorporates the results of human capital strategic planning. All efforts are attempting to

ensure a future workforce with the right numbers of people with the right skills.

39

2. Internal Environment

The same demographics that are impacting the DoD as a whole are also affecting

the Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) Acquisition Center workforce.

Over the last 13 years, the workload increased 150 percent, while the workforce count

decreased by 68 percent. Considering that baby-boomers will be retirement eligible

during the next ten years, the CECOM Acquisition Center could potentially lose 90

percent of its workforce. No one can predict the actual workload over the next ten years,

other than to state that a reduction is unlikely given the President’s goal to transform the

military into a more lethal and agile force. The bottom-line is that the CECOM

Acquisition Center faces a major shortfall in the number of younger employees readily

available to step into the positions that will be vacated by retiring personnel. A

tremendous turnover within the CECOM Acquisition Center is expected and it is

imperative that the CECOM Acquisition Center pursues ways by which more

experienced employees can convey some of the vast, experiential knowledge to newly

hired, or newly promoted, contracting personnel.

C. STANKOSKI’S FOUR PILLARS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

The four enterprise engineering pillars are leadership, organization, technology,

and learning in support of enterprise-wide KM initiatives. The pillars represent critical

success factors for KM implementation. To achieve a basic entry level KM program, all

four pillars must be addressed. Below is each pillar’s application for the CECOM

Acquisition Center. [Ref 19]

1. Leadership

The purpose of this Leadership pillar is that it develops business and operational

strategies to survive and position the organization for success in today’s dynamic

environment. Given the CECOM mission, the strategies chosen determine vision, and

these strategies must align knowledge management with business tactics to drive the

value of knowledge management throughout the enterprise. Leadership establishes and

implements the strategy that is supposed to nourish the climate and culture. Because

leadership interacts with the environment to position itself for success, Knowledge

Management Systems require leaders who are strong proponents of the Strategic Plan and

40

are dedicated to meeting and exceeding the organizational goals. The climate of the

CECOM Acquisition Center is accurately described in the internal and external

environment and is not repeated here.

The strategic plan for the CECOM Acquisition Center is a cause and effect story

that starts with Mission and Vision. The Mission of the CECOM Acquisition Center is:

“To provide customers valued added business solutions that support America’s War

fighters.” The vision of the CECOM Acquisition Center is: “To be the Acquisition Center

of Choice where innovative people provide optimal solutions to meet the needs of

customers for America and its Allies.” (CECOM AC Strategic Plan, 2001) Given the

mission and vision statements, an organization needs to articulate its value propositions

to its customers. A value proposition is a set of benefits offered to customers that are

consistent with the organization’s goals and gives the organization and its customers the

competitive edge. In other words, a value proposition is the organization’s message that

answers the question, what does the name “CECOM Acquisition Center” send to a

customer that will make it choose to do business with them over their competitor? It’s

those value propositions of the organization that make it superior. Through the

Appreciative Interview process conducted in the Spring of 2000, the CECOM

Acquisition Center found its three main strengths, or value propositions, were:

innovation, performance and relationships. A brief description of each value proposition

is below.

• Innovation – Numerous and evolving acquisition vehicles providing

flexibility, speed and total solutions

• Performance – Consistent and predictable execution of customer

requirements that are responsive and procedurally correct

• Relationships – Accessibility, responsiveness and positive relationship

management through the life of the partnership

Customers told the Acquisition Center they wanted the CECOM Acquisition

Center to be flexible and fast, and they wanted the job done right the first time.

Innovation is one of the value propositions that allow an organization to do that. The

“consistent and predictable” portion of performance reflects an organization’s

41

commitment to providing the same level of superior performance no matter which

contracting officer or specialist is providing the service. The customers said they wanted

the CECOM Acquisition Center to respond to their needs and they didn’t really care how

it was accomplished as long as it was transparent to the customer. Customers wanted

close working relationships, and positive relationship management can develop those

close working relationships.

a. Strategic Themes

To implement the value propositions, five important strategic themes were

chosen: (1) Communications, (2) Talent Management, (3) Process, (4) Knowledge

Management, and (5) Partnerships. Each of the five themes has a strategic initiative

associated with it, which essentially, defines or explains that strategic theme.

• Communications – Strategic Theme: “Leverage communication

practices with all shareholders to foster an informed and innovative

atmosphere.”

• Talent Management - Strategic Theme: “Create and implement a

talent management approach to ensure performance in a dynamic

environment to deliver the optimal solution for every stakeholder

and shareholder.”

• Process – Strategic Theme: “Develop a process driven culture and

optimize key processes to drive efficiency, quality and business

ease.”

• Knowledge Management – Strategic Theme – “Manage

information, knowledge and expertise to optimize the competitive

advantage of the Center and its customers.”

• Partnerships - Strategic Theme: “Ensure a results-oriented

environment by developing collaborative relationships among

stakeholders.” [Ref 24]

42

In the 21st Century, how can an organization build and implement an

effective strategic plan? One proven method, utilized by forty percent of Fortune 1000

companies, is to measure its strategies utilizing a balanced scorecard approach. This is a

performance measurement tool developed in 1993 by Robert Kaplan and David Norton of

the Harvard Business School. [Ref 25] Balanced Scorecard has been used successfully in

both profit and non-profit enterprises. One of the advantages of the Balanced Scorecard

approach is that it provides a methodology that builds upon the foundation below it- one

building block at a time. It allows the Chief Information Officer or, in the CECOM

Acquisition Center’s case, the Director to manage business strategy and guide overall

performance by measuring the impact of activities on selected externally and internally

focused categories. The executive team, which consists of the Director, Deputy Director

and all GS-15 Sector Chiefs, selected four categories to balance the strategic plan:

Learning and Growth, Process, Customer and Financial. These categories build upon one

another from the foundational themes of Learning and Growth and Process. Learning

and Growth deals with people, while Process deals with systems, procedures and

structures. The Customer category relates to applying the organization’s value

propositions for customers. Finally, Financial which deals with the CECOM Acquisition

Center’s rewards for doing things better, cheaper, faster for customers. The CECOM

Acquisition Center and its customers both gain competitive advantages through

collaboration. Savings achieved by doing things better, cheaper, faster can be plowed

back into infrastructure improvements. [Ref 26]

Starting from the foundation and working through the Cause and Effect

story, the strategies tell the steps that the Acquisition Center is pursuing and the purpose

of each strategy.

b. The Cause and Effect Story

By promoting effective communication and collaborative behaviors it

means that the organization is using systematic processes and practices, which foster

communication to and from all levels. By achieving a systematic process flow,

information vital to the organization will continue to improve. The culture that the

CECOM Acquisition Center strives for is an atmosphere of trust and free from

retribution. By pursuing free flowing communications, it supports and builds a culture,

43

which supports and celebrates innovation, collaboration and performance. By supporting

and celebrating innovation and performance it means that the organization is formally

and informally recognizing employees at all levels, both internally and externally, for

their contributions to the CECOM Acquisition Center, CECOM and the Army. When the

foundation is fully developed, it will enable the organization to systematically

communicate relevant and multidirectional information and provide a means of feedback.

That means that organizational practices and processes are established, which provide an

open exchange of information, through multiple, established channels of communication

to provide feedback, which further means that continuous process improvement practices

provide the workforce with access to a knowledge repository of current and accurate

information with meaningful incentives for the workforce to share value added, context

relevant data and experiences. Building on the foundation of communication and

knowledge management, it’s important for an organization to add vibrancy to the most

vital of all assets in every organization - the entire workforce. Addressing the needs of

the workforce today as well as in the future is the focus of the next strategy: Retain,

Promote and Recruit Individuals for the Future State Workplace. With knowledge gained

through the communications process, CECOM Acquisition Center’s personnel processes

are further refined and developed to establish a recruitment and retention program

responsive to the organization’s changing needs. Core processes are designed and

infrastructure developed. Another key element within the CECOM Acquisition Center

strategic plan is to grow the internal Enterprise Learning Center to maximize

organizational performance. An enterprise solution that gauges the current state of the

workforce, anticipates their future needs and equips them with the unique knowledge,

skills and abilities necessary to be the business professionals of choice, decreases time to

deliver goods and services; provides consistent and flexible solutions for customers;

optimizes quality of customers’ experience, and translates into understanding customers’

desired results.

Through continual collaboration and feedback with customers, and

through anticipation of customer needs, the Knowledge Management strategy employed

by the CECOM Acquisition Center retains and attracts customers by finding solutions to

help them execute their mission. The CECOM Acquisition Center and its customers

44

achieve an understanding of common expectations and desired results through

development and enhancement of knowledge and expertise. An organization that

employs a knowledge management strategy performs effectively and efficiently by

leveraging the workforce’s intellectual capital to meet the acquisition professional’s need

for immediate access to current, relevant and useful information. Knowledge

management strategies provide cumulative knowledge to develop solutions. When

properly and consistently executed, organizations are more likely to improve their

business solutions for customers and to help them meet their challenges. Employing a

knowledge management strategy also builds loyalty and trust because the customer has

confidence in the organization’s expertise. Customers that have loyalty and confidence

continue to return and promote the CECOM Acquisition Center to other customers.

Promoting effective communication with external partners maintains

effective channels of communication with headquarters, other Services, customers, and

industry to facilitate a mutually beneficial understanding of missions and collaborative

behaviors. The CECOM Acquisition Center maintains open dialog with stakeholders

outside the Acquisition Center by identifying and developing types and classes of

partnerships. They include partnership arrangements with all stakeholders from informal

to formal relationships. Developing close working relationships eliminates the possibility

of adversarial conditions. It also cultivates a mastery of account management and

customer care. The CECOM Acquisition Center has formally developed an External and

an Internal Customer Representative for each customer. The job of the external customer

representative is to understand and plan for the customer’s work efforts for the next four

fiscal quarters. The external representative is the customer’s focal point into the CECOM

Acquisition Center, sort of like one-stop shopping. The job of the internal customer

representative is to execute the individual work efforts identified by the external

representative through the individual efforts of contracting officers and specialists. The

CECOM Acquisition Center also implemented a Joint Partnering Contractor (JPCs)

representative for its largest contractors. JPCs focus their efforts on the largest

contractors from a Strategic Alliance standpoint, which mean the contractors that are

consistently in the top five positions in terms of awards year after year. Together the

Customer Representatives and JPCs increase the level of satisfaction for both internal and

45

external partners. This is accomplished by keeping abreast of Acquisition Reform

initiatives, training, technological changes in the customer’s business environment, which

in turn requires development of innovative solutions, which result in strengthened

partnerships. By developing alliances and coalitions with internal and external partners

and remaining organizationally flexible to accommodate changes in customer needs, the

CECOM Acquisition Center provides value through customer account management

agility, which in turn maximizes customer satisfaction and loyalty. Building long-term

strategic alliances with partners by providing consistency throughout the workforce,

results in high quality business solutions for partners. By accomplishing those strategic

initiatives, the CECOM Acquisition Center develops opportunities to maintain and

increase direct funds for common level support, while gaining cost efficiencies through

the use of knowledge partners, thereby becoming the Most Efficient Organization

(MEO). Through collaborative alliances with knowledge partners and increasing revenue

growth for infrastructure investment when resourcing allows, the CECOM Acquisition

Center seeks and develops new reimbursable arrangements without degradation with

existing alliances. Return on investment is realized through improvements in automation

tools and training for the workforce, which reduces transaction cost for each acquisition

action.

c. The Strategic Theme View

It is also important to look at a strategic plan by viewing each of the five

strategic themes. In a performance driven organization, the employees communicate

effectively and share collaborative behaviors, they celebrate innovation and performance

successes. Once that foundation is laid, key processes can be developed and optimized.

All employees are part of the organization, which designs processes and infrastructure.

These key processes become routine within the CECOM Acquisition Center, which leads

to the utilization of resources in a most efficient manner. The result is that it leads to a

decrease in the time it takes to deliver goods and services. As a result, consistent and

flexible solutions are provided to the customer and the quality of the customers’

experience is improved. That will, in turn, reduce transaction costs and lead to a

consistent revenue stream for common level support.

46

The foundation of Knowledge Management also begins with

communications and talent and resource management themes. The most basic strategy is

to understand customer needs. Implicit in this strategy is understanding of customers’

needs, as they are today and the not too distant future and building on that understanding.

With the knowledge of customers’ needs, CECOM Acquisition Center establishes the

right training and development, with the right retention and recruitment processes for

today and the future. It is believed that people with the right skills will enhance, develop

and support innovation and collaboration and improve performance. CECOM

Acquisition Center can celebrate and communicate these improvements internally and

externally, and by doing so will be adopting a strategic culture.

d. A Strategic Culture

In its simplest terms it means that every employee understands how his or

her daily activities contribute towards the long-range vision of being that Acquisition

Center of Choice. Built on the foundation of strategic culture the Acquisition Center

develops and enhances collective use of knowledge and expertise through business

systems that enhance innovation and productivity. With the systems, knowledge and

expertise harnessed, CECOM Acquisition Center provides customers, shareholders and

partners optimal solutions. That, in turn, builds customer loyalty and trust through the

confidence customers have in the CECOM Acquisition Center’s expertise. The goal is to

allow CECOM Acquisition Center to utilize resources more efficiently saving people

time, which allows them to accomplish more complex work, which satisfies even more

customers and fulfills the CECOM Acquisition Center vision – be the Acquisition Center

of choice.

Starting with the Communications and Talent Management Strategic

themes as the foundation – the Partnership theme also begins with understanding

customers’ needs and ensuring that CECOM Acquisition Center clearly define and

implement the customer representative role. With the customer representative role

clearly defined, more effective communications with partners will result. It also means

identifying and developing types and classes of partnerships and how, when and where to

use them. The result is strengthened partnerships and relationships with shareholders and

stakeholders, which improves customer loyalty. Greater customer satisfaction results

47

from these enhanced arrangements with partners. Ultimately, the result will be cost

efficiencies and increased revenue growth for infrastructure and intellectual investments.

A strategic plan is the starting point for any organization trying to

implement a knowledge management system. Additionally, the strategic plan needs to be

fully encompassing, and developed based on the mission, vision and value propositions

of the organization. From the above strategic plan, CECOM Acquisition Center

developed a fully encompassing plan where goals were set that take into consideration

the climate, culture and environment that exists.

2. Organization

The value of knowledge creation and collaboration need to be intertwined

throughout an enterprise. The organizational structure must support strategy.

Operational processes must align with the knowledge management framework and

strategy, including all performance metrics and objectives. While operational needs

dictate organizational alignment, a knowledge management system must be designed to

facilitate knowledge management throughout the organization. Operational processes

must be aligned with the vision while redesigning the organization and identifying key

levers of change, including roles and responsibilities. Introducing knowledge

management requires organizational change, and knowledge management inevitably acts

as a catalyst to transform the organization’s culture. The increasing value placed on

highly capable people, rising job complexity and the universal availability of information

on the Internet are fundamental changes contributing to the move by organizations to

leverage knowledge management solutions. In order to begin changing the organization,

knowledge management must be integrated into the business processes. The right

business processes and performance management systems must be strong enough to deal

with turbulence yet flexible enough to adapt to change.

The organizational structure of the CECOM Acquisition Center was changed in

1998, again in 2002 and again in 2003. All three changes in organizational structure were

necessitated by the implementation of the five themed strategic plan to enable alignment

of organizational goals with a structure that could implement those goals. A brief

explanation of the changes follows. In consideration of the volume of work and the

48

effects of downsizing it was recognized that the stove piped organization that existed for

at least 20 years leading up to 1998 could no longer deliver the services expected by

customers. The organizational structure that existed before 1998 was a traditional

divisional structure with branches. Employees that worked in one branch only performed

efforts for the customers of that branch. While employees gained tremendous experience

working with one or two customers, the organizational structure was inefficient.

Customers’ work was generally cyclical in nature. The command considered collocating

specialists and contracting officers with PM offices, but that idea was flawed for two

reasons: (1) collocating employees with PMs requires more employees, not less and the

trend was toward less employees, and (2) breaking apart a homogeneous group to work in

PM offices discourages the contract specialist and contracting officer from pursuing

greater levels of knowledge within their field. PMs would tend to ask the GS-1102s to

perform non-1102 work whenever there was an opportunity.

Moreover, collocation exacerbates an already dire condition. Program Managers

(PMs) generally use Army Procurement Appropriations (APA) funds to execute their

programs; PMs press the CECOM Acquisition Center to award before the end of each

fiscal quarter, with additional emphasis near the end of the fiscal year, which is 30

September. During the balance of the year, demands from PMs are lighter. The pattern

for CECOM Acquisition Center’s other major customers, the CECOM Logistics

Readiness Center and the CECOM Research and Development Center, did not follow the

same quarterly pattern as PM customers, although they press just as hard for the CECOM

Acquisition Center to accomplish their work on a timely basis too. The Logistic

Readiness Center uses mainly Army Working Capital Funds (AWCF) to execute its

mission. Since AWCF funds do not expire at the end of fiscal years, the Logistic

Readiness Center mission occurred throughout the year and pressure is applied based on

shortages in any of the 60,000 National Stock Numbers managed by the CECOM

Logistics Readiness Center in the field. The CECOM Research and Development Center

accomplishes its mission using mainly Research and Development funding, which has a

two-year life, so pressure is applied in a more controlled way. The organizational

structure change in 1998 eliminated the stovepipe organization and made the entire

CECOM Acquisition Center a “straight line” organization; meaning that employees could

49

be moved where and when needed between divisions and branches without personnel

actions (i.e., an SF-50). The benefit to the CECOM Acquisition Center was that the

organizational structure change created “pools” of contracting officers and contract

specialists. No longer did the work migrate to the branch that was formerly responsible

for that customer. Instead, Sector Chiefs (the new name for division chiefs) assigned the

work wherever there was capacity. By making that change, the old branch structure was

eliminated and employees were monitored to ensure that there was an equal distribution

of work. The 1998 organizational change also established the customer representative

position and the Joint Partnering Customer representative position. The difficulty with

the new organizational structure that was created in 1998 was that employees from many

branches had depth of experience with that branches’ work, but lacked a breadth of

experience with diversified customers and diversified contractual instruments. Secondly,

the customer representatives were the supervisors that were responsible for ensuring that

the employees without the specialized experience necessary to complete their new

assignments with quality and timeliness and it was difficult to service customers while

ensuring that Acquisition Center employees received enough on-the-job training to fulfill

their new diversified assignments.

After four years of maintaining the 1998 organizational structure, a change was

needed in 2002. No longer could customer representatives be expected to care for the

customer and the employees without something falling through those ever-present cracks.

The 2002 organizational structural change was necessitated by the implementation of the

strategic plan to enable alignment of organizational goals with a structure that could

implement those goals. While not as dramatic a change as in 1998, nevertheless,

structurally it had an impact. In 2002, the CECOM Acquisition Center felt that customer

representatives could not meet customer expectations usually at PM offices while being

responsible for the transfer of knowledge to the members of the workforce at the

CECOM Acquisition Center. It was felt that to do justice to all their customers, each

customer representative had to be free to be with their assigned customers more than 60

percent of the time. Between 1998 and 2002, all customer representatives had

supervisory responsibilities for employees and they also had to ensure contracting

officers and contract specialists were completing the work back at the office. A customer

50

representative was responsible to ensure that each contract action was the right

contractual instrumental for the effort, had the requisite quality and was completed on a

timely basis while physically in another building. The change in 2002 brought about

internal and external customer representatives. Splitting the single customer

representative role enabled one external GS-14 to concentrate almost exclusively on the

customers while the internal GS-14 concentrated on the efficient and compliant

prosecution of the work and supervisory responsibilities.

The change in organizational structure for 2003 was an attempt to position the

CECOM Acquisition Center to succeed in the future. With the retirements of 80

employees in FY 2002, it became imperative that the Acquisition Center hire as many

employees to fill vacancies as possible. Due to the location of Fort Monmouth, in a high

cost area, job opportunity announcements resulted in very few outside candidates. The

candidates that applied were all looking for promotion opportunities. The CECOM

Acquisition Center promoted many, but the total civilian count remained constant. The

CECOM Acquisition Center was fortunate that Army Materiel Command received

funding to hire additional Distinguished Honor Graduates for the Department of Army

(DA) intern program. Based on the need and available funding for local interns, CECOM

Acquisition Center added 45 new interns during the first quarter of FY 2004. Training 45

new contract specialist interns in two years to be fully functioning GS-11 contract

specialists in an organization that has only 404 employees is challenging. A change in

organizational structure was needed. In the past, a single first year intern and a single

second year intern were assigned to seasoned contracting officers. The contracting

officer had the responsibility to give the first year and second year interns all the

contractual experiences that could be had from that team during their one-year

assignment. At the end of a year, the first year intern would rotate to another Sector, be

assigned to a different contracting officer, who had a completely different workload and

the new contracting officer had the responsibility of giving the now second intern all the

contractual experiences that could be had on that team during the one year assignment.

The second year intern was then placed in a permanent assignment with a completely

different Sector and contracting officer. With 45 new interns, however, it was impossible

for every one of those 45 new interns to receive specialized attention from contracting

51

officers. To address this challenge the CECOM Acquisition center put all 45 new interns

in one Group and provided four seasoned instructors to provide intense training. Having

provided this type of intense training to a previous group of nine new interns, the

CECOM Acquisition Center was confident that this intense initial training, the equivalent

of CON 100 and CON 101, should take no more than eight full weeks. At the end of

eight weeks, the new interns will be assigned to the three buying sectors located at Fort

Monmouth for more intensive training that should last for an additional ten months. The

45 new interns will not be assigned to individual contracting officers for their training

since the number of interns per sector will overwhelm the contracting officers per Sector.

Instead, the group of 15 interns per sector will stay together under the auspices of one

contracting officer and one seasoned contract specialist. What is different about this new

structure is that the seasoned contracting officer and specialist will be relieved of all their

normal work in order to concentrate and devote the next ten months to giving each of the

15 new interns the experiences necessary to be a fully functioning GS-11s by the end of

the intern’s first year of internship.

Structurally, the CECOM Acquisition Center will not appear very different from

its current structure and reporting chains. However, within the structural change, the

culture of the organization is by necessity dramatically changing. Also changing is the

workflow. In order to provide 45 interns with the experiences of a fully functioning GS-

11, dramatic shifts in the distribution of work is required. All less complex actions, like

funding actions, spares buys, delivery orders, simplified acquisition purchases, broad

agency announcements, invitations for bid, etc., will be funneled to this group of 45 new

interns. The contracting officers assigned to train the new interns along with the

customer representatives for these actions will need to monitor all contract actions closely

to ensure the requisite quality and timeliness goals are met throughout the ten month

period as the new interns gain skills, expertise and experience. Additionally, realize that

the metrics that were established to meet customer expectations are not suspended just

because an intern is assigned to an action. Secondly, the regular workforce must adjust to

a new method and process for training interns. Instead of having a contracting officer

teach a maximum of two interns, there will be three contracting officers and three

contract specialists exclusively training 45 interns.

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In summary, a flexible organizational structure is a necessity for any organization

trying to implement a knowledge management system that can be strained and stressed

due to retirements and new hires. The organizational structure needs to be fully

encompassing, and developed based on the mission, vision and value propositions of the

organization. From the above organizational structure, CECOM Acquisition Center has

developed a fully encompassing structure where goals were set that take into

consideration the climate, culture and environment that exists.

3. Technology

Technology enables and provides all of the infrastructure and tools to support

knowledge management within an enterprise. While cultural and organizational changes

are vital to achieving a knowledge management strategy, a lack of proper tools and

technology infrastructure can lead to failure. Any technical solution must add value to

the process and achieve measurable improvements. Properly assessing and defining

Information Technology capabilities is essential. The Gartner Group defined ten

technologies that collectively make up full-function knowledge management. The

functional requirements that enterprises can select and use to build a knowledge

management solution include: [Ref 27]

• Capture and store

• Search and retrieve

• Send critical information to individuals or groups

• Structure and navigate

• Share and collaborate

• Synthesize

• Profile and personalize

• Solve or recommend

• Integrate with business applications

• Maintain critical information

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Currently, no technology product meets all ten functional requirements.

Therefore, before selecting a solution, enterprises need to clearly define their KM

strategy, scope and requirements, and perform product evaluations to identify technology

products that effectively meet most of them. The CECOM Acquisition Center is no

different than most other organizations. Many of the systems used are stand alone

systems and do not easily interface with one another. In its infancy is the Army’s

Logistics Modernization Program. The Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) contract

requires that the contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), provide for the

transfer of expertise, workload, software, and documentation associated with sustaining

the Army’s entire Logistics Management System. The undertaking is unprecedented in

that the job modernizes the Information Technologies of the logistics management

systems throughout the Army. The Army Materiel Command (AMC) LMP Corporate

Board of Directors unanimously endorsed the CSC's Business Process Reengineering and

Analysis (BPR&A) report, which was formally approved on 15 November 2000. The

BPR&A endorsed SAP as the single commercial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Package that was perceived as the enabler for the modernized services that CSC will

provide. The SAP ERP is also the ERP solution set selected by the Defense Logistics

Agency and the US Navy for their IT modernization activities. AMC is now engaged in

the pick-and-shovel work of the mapping the Command's enterprises, again, in close

partnership and team activity with the LMP contractor. CECOM was designated the first

to field LMP. Equally important, it is that AMC also established a change management

structure to deal with the entire AMC command’s ability to accept, lead, and foster

change to its organizations and practices while capitalizing on this standard core ERP

solution set across the command.

Notwithstanding that CECOM was chosen, as first to field, the sequence of

fielding did not mean that all Major Subordinate Commands within AMC were not fully

engaged in the process from day one. Each of AMC’s subordinate Commands remained

deeply engaged and closely involved in: (1) the LMP "Command Neutral" Enterprise

Design and Proof-of-Concept activities, (2) the Specialized Interface Activities, and, (3)

the accommodation of "long lead-time" planning and programming activities.

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Additionally, a network of designated "Change Agents" and processes for both the pre-

deployment and post-deployment phases of AMC’s LMP strategy were collectively dealt

with to implement LMP AMC-wide organizationally and with process standardization

goals in mind.

In addition, the contract, awarded by the CECOM Acquisition Center, required

that CSC provide for the retention of expertise through job offers for all displaced

Government employees at the Central Design Activities [CECOM’s Industrial Logistics

Systems Center (ILSC) and the Logistics Systems Support Center (LSSC)] within their

current geographic area and with comparable salary and benefits. Approximately 210 of

the available displaced Government employees from within the Logistics community at

ILSC and LSSC accepted job offers from CSC. Also, all actions to transfer the workload

and software for the Logistics Management System were successfully completed.

While not fully implemented, the LMP is a start at establishing a technology that

enables and provides all of the infrastructure and tools to support knowledge management

within an entire enterprise. While cultural and organizational changes are vital to

achieving a knowledge management strategy, a lack of proper tools and technology

infrastructure can lead to failure. Any technical solution must add value to the process

and achieve measurable improvements. Properly assessing and defining Information

Technology (IT) capabilities is essential. The LMP was a major breakthrough in logistics

modernization that will have lasting impact throughout CECOM and AMC.

4. Learning

The best tools and processes alone will not achieve a knowledge management

strategy. Ultimately, people are responsible for using the tools and performing the

operations. Creating organizational behavior that supports a knowledge management

strategy will continue long after the knowledge management system is established.

Organizational learning must be addressed with approaches such as increasing internal

communications, promoting cross-functional teams, and creating a learning community.

Learning is an integral part of knowledge management. In this context, learning can be

described as the acquisition of knowledge or a skill through study, experience, or

instruction. Enterprises must recognize that people operate and communicate through

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learning that includes the social processes of collaborating, sharing knowledge and

building on each other’s ideas. Managers must recognize that the knowledge resides in

people, and knowledge creation occurs in the process of social interaction and learning.

A somewhat broader perspective on knowledge management is to use knowledge

to continuously improve all types of organizational processes. Davenport and Prusak

[Ref 6] state that there are a number of standard ways in which knowledge can be used.

They are: (1) document experiences, like best practices and after action reports, which

provide an historical perspective, (2) document what actually happens in a real life

situation, this information is used to modify the work processes to conform to reality or to

improve the process, (3) knowledge can also be used to assist workers in making

judgments and finally, (4) knowledge can be used to improve structured workflows. The

greatest challenge for any organization is to turn knowledge into action. Implementing

continuous process improvement is a way to turn knowledge into action.

CECOM Acquisition Center is developing knowledge within the organization in

many ways. They have active best practices identified on their Enterprise Learning

Center, which is an intranet for the CECOM Acquisition Center and its customers. The

goal of best practices transfer is to capture and leverage existing knowledge. Best

practices are not intended to generate new knowledge. The goal of best practices is to

reuse the knowledge others have already learned. This type of knowledge is normally

captured using documents and the documents stored in retrievable databases. The

Enterprise Learning Center is one such cataloged and retrievable database. Another

organization-wide transfer is the transfer of expertise. Expertise is the result of

combining specific skills with the experience to understand how to use them. One cannot

be an expert in the field by just reading a book or attending a class. Developing expertise

requires practicing those skills in a variety of situations and being able to apply and adapt

them appropriately to achieve successful outcomes. Since expertise takes a long time to

develop, it clearly is in an organization’s best interest to find ways to develop expertise

more quickly. One of the ways that family owned businesses transfer expertise is

through apprenticeship. In family owned businesses, fathers teach sons and mothers

teach daughters. The transfer of expertise is on a shortened timescale. Likewise, the

CECOM Acquisition Center assigns new interns to seasoned contracting officers, and at

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the end of the first year the intern is reassigned to another sector and another seasoned

contracting officer. The CECOM Acquisition Center needs to continue to find ways to

transfer expertise more quickly. Another transfer that is necessary is the transfer of

experience. Experience is a mixture of lessons learned, cognitive assessments,

relationships and preconceived ideas which when combined with intelligence, transforms

information into usable knowledge. Experience is considerably more than technical

expertise and is essential to understanding and correctly interpreting information coming

into an organization from the outside. [Ref 28] The Army After Action Reviews are an

excellent template for the CECOM Acquisition Center to emulate in capturing and

transferring experience. Finally, the most challenging knowledge transfer is to transfer

innovation. Innovation is predicated on the ability to integrate new information with

existing knowledge to create something new. It takes both exposure to new thinking and

the time to work out innovative ideas. Organizations where speed of delivery is the

mantra often have difficulty transferring innovation. One major problem within most

organizations is that they don’t know what they don’t know. Secondly, it is frequently

difficult to transmit innovative ideas in organizations in ways ideas can be understood

and acted upon. When an organization has a uniform culture and common definitions

and understanding of all its terms, then the transfer is more likely to occur. The lesson

here is that transfer of knowledge within an organization depends on the type of

knowledge to be transferred. And each type of transfer requires a different strategy and

framework. Best practices are meant to be transferred throughout an organization.

Expertise transfer is more focused toward individuals. Experience is generally

transferred to make teams more effective. And finally, innovation is transferred to

stimulate both individuals and the whole organization with the goal of transforming the

organization. The CECOM Acquisition Center is not as sophisticated as the knowledge

management system just described, however, it does have active communities of practice.

Knowledge communities must serve two strategic objectives within the organization.

First they must facilitate knowledge development, meaning they must be able to identify,

harvest and organize knowledge within the organization. Secondly, they must be able to

apply knowledge, meaning they must be able to share, adapt and deliver business results

through the application of organizational knowledge.

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However, that is only the most basic knowledge management system. To take

knowledge management to the next higher level, knowledge needs to be embedded into

the organization’s work processes. It should also be used to improve decision-making at

all levels of the organization. Effective knowledge management systems need to be able

to provide increased support and analysis that turns available information into useful

knowledge. Efforts should also be made to consolidate and integrate enterprise-wide

databases and data sources to improve consistency and integrity of information. And

finally, a Knowledge Management system should be able to capture knowledge without

extra effort. The same system that records the completion of work should also be

capturing the knowledge.

5. Summary

It is evident that the need for knowledge management translates throughout the

entire enterprise. It is not a separate function characterized by a separate KM department

or a knowledge management process; it must be embedded into all of the organization’s

business processes. Knowledge management is crucial to achieving permanent

performance improvement and innovation. Efficient knowledge-intensive core processes

and a fundamental architecture must be established to effectively initiate and implement

knowledge management. Ideally, knowledge management implementation is an iterative

process that starts with a clear business vision about what the organization wants to

achieve.

D. PROCESS FLOW

Professionals are probably considered the quintessential knowledge workers. In

fact, there is an emphasis on knowledge as a core-generating trait of professionalism.

[Ref 29] Within the literature on professional groups is an assumption that professionals

already have in place the business processes needed for leveraging knowledge, and there

is no compelling reason why these knowledge management processes should be changed.

[Ref 30] In many respects this claim has merit since the knowledge management

practices of professionals were developed over decades and there is natural reluctance to

change practices without incurring unintended consequences. Professionalism provides a

heightened need to recognize the existing knowledge management practices which may

be independent of information technologies. Professionals use formal training,

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credentials and apprenticeship programs to transfer knowledge. Within many professions

there is a growing recognition dealing with knowledge loss by capturing the information

in a database does not work. The reason is that the value of the knowledge is embedded

in its tacit aspects, which cannot be captured on paper. Professionals feel that

apprenticeship programs are a better way to deal with knowledge loss. Also consider that

historically professionals go through a fairly strong socialization process before entering

the mainstream of their profession. It is not until the professional has been socialized that

he or she is able to bring their full experience to their customers. Through socialization,

professionals share a significant quantity of tacit knowledge, which facilitates their

communications. Finally, professionals draw upon considerable autonomy in their

efforts. Professionals use self-governance at the group level to monitor norms within the

profession. A professional organization, like NCMA has a vision to be the preeminent

source of professional development for the practice of contract management. The above

attributes describe all professionals in general and apply to the professionals within the

CECOM Acquisition Center, especially its contracting officers and contract specialists.

The role of professionalism can provide key insights into a knowledge management

system. Based on the above, in organizations comprised of professionals it is necessary

to understand where knowledge flows and where it is impeded. Understanding where

and why practices and processes are common and where they are not.

1. High Level Functional Architecture

The high level functional architecture is analogous to the foundational acquisition

competencies listed within NCMA’s CMBOK. Again that top-level taxonomy is:

• Contract Principles – which are the fundamentals of acquisition that all

contracting professionals must comprehend.

• Preaward – are the activities and events that are required for awarding a

contract.

• Contract Administration – are the issues that arise during the

performance of a contract.

• Subspecialties – are those areas that require additional specialized

knowledge.

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• General Business – are portions of other disciplines relevant to contract

management. [Ref 10]

In addition to those broad areas of knowledge are general business, which

includes management, marketing, operations, accounting, economics, quantitative

methods and finance. Underlying those broad knowledge areas are the disciplines of

operations research, logic, psychology, philosophy, sociolinguistics, management

science, management information science, organizational behavior, and management

philosophy. In order to exercise good business judgment within the acquisition field,

members require several additional core acquisition skills. As a profession, the

acquisition field contains a unique body of knowledge, which must be mastered. It

should be highlighted that without the necessary general business skills, the foundational

competencies skills could not be developed, let alone utilized in the performance of one’s

duties. Core acquisition competencies are developed into skills and skills give an

individual the ability to perform their day-to-day tasks in the acquisition field in order to

conduct DoD business in the manner that is critical to achieving best-value acquisitions

while simultaneously serving all stakeholders. Core acquisition skills further serve as

basic building blocks to obtaining advanced and specialized acquisition skills

2. Subordinate Architectures

Cascading from the foundational competencies NCMA defines subject matter

competencies as a subset of the foundational competencies. These are the knowledge

areas that contracting professionals need to know and demonstrate to be effective in daily

activities.

To illustrate the cascade from foundational competencies to subject matter

competencies Figure 5 demonstrates the five foundational competencies cascading into

subject matter competencies.

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NCMA’s Foundational and Subject Matter Competencies Contracting Principles

Standards of conduct Laws and regulations

Socioeconomic Contract structures Contracting methods Contract financing Intellectual property Contract Administration Sub-specialties Quality Assurance Research and Development Subcontract Management A&E and Construction Modifications Program Management Disputes Major Systems Property Services Transportation International Contract Closeout State and Local Government Contract Termination General Business Acquisition Planning/Strategy Management Acquisition Planning Marketing Contract Instruments

Finance Proposal Preparation Accounting Sole Source Negotiations Economics Source Selection

Management Information Systems Protests Information Science Figure 5. The 5 Foundational Competencies Cascading into Subject Matter Competencies [Ref 10]

Further cascading from the subject matter competencies, NCMA defines task

level competencies as a subset of subject matter competencies. These are the more

specific knowledge areas that contracting professionals need to know and demonstrate to

be effective in daily activities. Appendix A illustrates the further cascading of

foundational competencies to subject level competencies to task level competencies.

Figure 5 and Appendix A demonstrate the high-level architecture and subordinate

architectures essential within an Acquisition Center similar to CECOM’s. One can see

the functional, subject matter and task level competencies and their cascading

relationship from the broad to the more specific. What becomes important is the

operations that are implied by the above architectures.

a Operations

Operational subordinate architectures describe the operations in terms of

how the knowledge within the knowledge management system is assured, represented,

transformed transferred and utilized. The CECOM Acquisition Center authenticates

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information within its databases in a variety of ways depending on the database.

Accurate and complete database management is part of every supervisor’s responsibilities

within the CECOM Acquisition Center. In their performance standards, GS-15s and GS-

14s are rated on five broad areas. They are: (1) compliance with CECOM Acquisition

Center goals, which include entering obligation dollars timely, eliminating database

errors, meeting cycle time goals for all acquisitions, meeting all AMC and Department of

the Army metrics; (2) managing people by normalizing the workload within their area of

responsibility, accurately reflecting utilized personnel within their area of responsibility,

direct oversight of the source documents contracting officers and specialists use to make

decisions to ensure quality contract actions are the norm as well as general counseling of

employees; (3) organizational communication, (4) maintaining adequate internal controls

to capture and correct systemic problems, as well as instances of fraud waste and abuse;

and (5) educating the workforce. Each supervisor is personally responsible to ensure the

workforce has received quality training during the year. By focusing the attention of

senior management on database accuracy, the authentication of the raw data that is used

to normalize workload and report organizational progress is assured with confidence. By

concentrating on people management, communication and review, employees are

afforded ample opportunity to get one-on-one assistance to ensure quality products are

delivered to assure customer satisfaction.

a. Vital and Critical Information

The vital and critical information necessary for any organization are those

measurements, which capture whether an organization is meeting organizational goals.

Within the CECOM Acquisition Center those measurements are cycle time, dollars

obligated, meeting all AMC and DA metrics, including Unliquidated Obligations goals,

performance based service obligation goals, past performance Information Management

Systems and annual Performance Assessment reports goals, as well as meeting the 80

hour training obligation required by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement

Act of 1991. Additionally, the Policy Group within the CECOM Acquisition Center

performs random spot checks on contracting officer work folders to assure that quality

checks are performed by the supervisors and as a double check on overall quality. A side

benefit of the spot checks is to determine areas, which require additional training, and to

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develop course materials for those training sessions. The vital information is generally

all available within the CECOM Acquisition Center’s Enterprise Learning Center, or

ELC. The ELC was developed in an attempt to share cubicle knowledge throughout the

workforce. The ELC resulted from a concept that encompassed a variety of activities. Its

primary goal was to share ideas and information and to infuse the Acquisition Center

workforce with an appreciation of collaborative teamwork. The activities include the

Knowledge Center, the Procurement Contracting Officer Round Table, ELC training,

early acquisition strategy sessions, the Acquisition Center monthly newsletter and the

Contracting Officer Mentor Program. The foundation of the ELC is the CECOM

Acquisition Center Knowledge Center. The Knowledge Center is an electronic

repository for all activities that are conducted by the ELC. The CECOM Acquisition

Center Knowledge Center was developed five years ago in partnership with Program

Executive Office Command, Control, and Communications Tactical (PEO C3T). Usage

on the Knowledge Center has grown exponentially. Earlier this year, the monthly “hits”

on the Knowledge Center averaged over 100,000, or three times as many as two years

prior. PCO roundtables are Communities of Practice. A new topic is chosen each month

and the contracting officers get together and have an expert-to-expert discussion, which is

open to experts and novices alike. During these sessions the transfer of knowledge and

learning is quite evident. Another outgrowth of the ELC is the Mentor Program. The

transition from contract specialist to contracting officer is a difficult step for many.

CECOM Acquisition Center developed this Mentor Program for newly promoted

contracting officers. Each new contracting officer is assigned an experienced mentor

contracting officer with whom they can discuss problems and issues. Many of these

relationships are lasting and mutually beneficial. The ELC is a good first step in

capturing and sharing many of the ideas within a workforce.

E. MEASURABLE CORE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

One of the most interesting and challenging aspects of knowledge management is

trying to measure and value knowledge. While extremely difficult to measure, the value

of knowledge management should be demonstrable on three levels within the

organization: job effectiveness, enterprise effectiveness, and support to strategic

direction. Measurements that consistently measure those parameters are the

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measurements that will offer the most insight to the effectiveness of the knowledge

management program. In addition, the value of knowledge should also be assessed from

three perspectives: the individual, the organization and the customer.

1. Metrics

To ensure that metrics are consistent and can be used to periodically benchmark

an organization four givens need to be in place: (1) metrics need to be tied to strategic

goals, (2) there must be standard nomenclature so the measures created are understood

the same way by everyone, (3) notwithstanding that most organization’s measurement

tools are home grown, there is a need for tools to assist in measurement, and (4) there

should be clear linkages between knowledge management enablers, like the four pillars,

and positive results of measurements.

A few of the CECOM Acquisition Center’s measurements are as listed in the vital

and critical information section under subordinate structures in this chapter. To repeat,

they are: cycle time, obligations, meeting all AMC and DA metrics, including

Unliquidated Obligations goals, performance based service obligation goals, past

performance Information Management Systems and annual Performance Assessment

reports goals, as well as meeting the 80 hour training obligation required by the Defense

Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act of 1991.

2. Critical Knowledge Needed to Achieve Strategic Objectives

As stated by Edward G. Elgart, Director of the CECOM Acquisition Center:

[The] CECOM Acquisition Center may be able to mitigate turnover problems occasioned by the exodus of experienced acquisition professional if it can find ways to transfer the vast breadth of knowledge to younger acquisition novices. The source selection evaluation process can present a problem even for most experienced acquisition specialist. For an uninitiated, inexperienced person, some source selection problems may present formidable challenges. Given the tremendous turnover within the acquisition community, we may have source selection evaluation boards comprised of complete novices. It is going to be very difficult for SSEB Chairmen and Factor Chairmen to be effective if they must train people as well as conduct a source selection. One way, by which we may overcome this challenge, is to provide source selection

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evaluation teams with access to a Knowledge Asset. That asset would consist of a ‘community’ of experienced, intelligent people well versed in the source selection process. With an open forum available to newly hired, or newly promoted specialist, in which critical questions can be asked and critical issues can be addressed, we will be able to have more effective source selection teams. In the end, this will provide a better product for the Army. [Ref 18]

While the CECOM Acquisition center would benefit from a measurement that

captured the knowledge gained by novices and experts alike, today an accurate

measurement does not exist. Therefore, other types of measures are used. The first type

is the anecdotal measurements. Although not scientific they are probably one of the most

powerful means of demonstrating the impact of knowledge management because

employees react positively to the stories that are repeatedly told to substantiate

knowledge management expenditures. A second type of measurement is a perceptual

measure. Perceptual measures are mainly formal or informal surveys of knowledge

management users. While positive comments to surveys are generally the norm, many

become accustom to the knowledge management tools that are put in place and no longer

see the value in each knowledge management tool. It’s only when the survey question is

worded, “if the KM tool was taken away, would you notice?” Then the value of the tool

becomes strongly positive. Another measure, that’s generally much more difficult to

quantify is a financial metric. Any time a knowledge management tool or process can be

quantified in terms of time savings, cost savings or cycle time reductions in both how

much and in what ways, management should measure it. If that is not possible,

organizations should ask their internal customers to put a value on the knowledge

management service. Another common way to measure knowledge management tools is

through usage. As noted in the prior section, the CECOM Acquisition Center Knowledge

Center is used over 100,000 times per month. A more complex assessment is to

determine how knowledge management initiatives contribute to different processes. By

tracking the investment in knowledge management tools to disseminate and improve

knowledge regarding the best value source selection against the time it takes to complete

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best value source selections and the protest rate both before and after the launch of the

KM tool, management may be able to link the progress to specific processes.

What is very important is to measure on a regular basis and the more frequent the

better. Another important point is to not be afraid to experiment. Knowledge

management an evolving practice. Measurements are not scientifically accurate,

therefore, experiment to find better measures. Always measure what is strategically

important. Choose metrics, which affect key strategic objectives. Always use

conservative numbers. And finally use different measures for different stakeholders.

Metrics must fit with what the stakeholders are trying to accomplish.

F. CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter expanded the foundation for a Knowledge Management Model. It

also identified foundational, subject matter and task level competencies essential to the

acquisition professional as well as the skills and competencies of those professionals.

The chapter began with an examination of the environment, both external and internal,

followed with the four-pillars model of Knowledge Management, which included

Leadership, Organization, Technology, and Learning. The chapter ended with the

disciplines and competencies required for contracting professional of today and the future

as well as the foundational subjects and skills essential to acquisition professionals.

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V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is to provide conclusions and recommendations based

on the findings in this study. The researcher will answer the thesis questions presented in

Chapter I and will conclude with suggestions for further research into the area of

knowledge management as a strategic initiative.

B. CONCLUSIONS

Several conclusions can be drawn from the research and analysis provided in this

thesis. Five particular conclusions are contained herein. These conclusions cover broad

macro issues that this research addressed.

1. Knowledge transfer within the Department of Defense is becoming

more and more critical.

Today’s environment requires that organizations be adept at capitalizing on the

individual and collective skills, expertise and experiences of the workforce to improve

effectiveness and efficiency. With a reduced workforce and increased workloads

organizations need to find ways to give novices skills, expertise and experiences in

shorter timeframes. The continual downsizing of the Department of Defense’s workforce

and the increase in the overall workload demand that for the Department of Defense to

fulfill its mission every worker needs to be fully proficient at all aspects of their job. In a

traditional divisional and branch structure, workers have depth of experience with limited

customers, which limit their overall experiential capability. Complicating knowledge

transfer is that the experienced contract professionals are nearing retirement eligibility

and taking their place are fewer and less experienced novices.

2. Knowledge Management Systems are not just about technology.

While it is true that technology can facilitate the use of knowledge throughout an

organization, a knowledge management system cannot be solely based on a technology

tool, for a comprehensive tool does not exist today. Effective knowledge management

systems need to be able to provide increased support and analysis that turns available

information into useful knowledge. Since the CECOM Acquisition Center is far from

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implementing a knowledge management system that meets those criteria, efforts need to

continue to consolidate and integrate enterprise-wide databases and data sources to

improve consistency and integrity of information. To maximize utilization, the

technology should be transparent to the users.

3. Effective Knowledge Management Systems are part of an overall

strategic plan that satisfies mission and vision goals of the

organization.

While not all knowledge management initiatives can be directly linked to more

efficient uses of organizational resources, all should be conceived and designed to

directly support an organization’s strategic objectives. To date, developing and aligning

knowledge management strategy has suffered from a lack of a systematic means of

approach. Developing an effective knowledge management strategy requires careful

analysis of the organization’s overall strategic goals and an iterative approach to strategic

development is recommended. Effective knowledge transfer considers organizational

strategy and incorporates value propositions that are clearly understood. Methods of

knowledge transfer should closely match the type of knowledge that needs to be

transferred. Best practices can be transferred using a database, but transfer source

selection experience is more likely best served by a community of practice. The CECOM

Acquisition Center has a start in that it has identified knowledge management as one of it

five themes within its strategic plan. The efforts already implemented with the Enterprise

Learning Center is a good first step in implementing a multifaceted knowledge

management strategic initiative.

4. The knowledge, skill and abilities required to successfully perform the

duties associated with contract management are an integral part of

the contract professional’s job.

Those duties are can be broken down into three functional competency levels:

foundational, subject matter competencies and task level competencies. The foundational

competencies are contracting principles, preaward, contract administration, sub-

specialties and general business, the subject matter and task level competencies cascade

down from the foundational competencies in subordinate architectures.

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5. There does not appear to be a direct correlation between the effort

expended on knowledge management and the value of knowledge

management.

Until a direct correlation can be established, it is important that organizations

continue to develop adequate performance measurements that link the value of

knowledge management efforts expended to the successful completion of strategic goals.

If that means using anecdotal stories, perceptual measures, a financial metric or simply

through counting tool usage that should continue.

C. RECOMMENDATIONS

Several recommendations can be suggested from the research and analysis

in this thesis. Peculiar recommendations are contained herein. These recommendations

cover broad macro issues that this research addressed.

1. Supervisors at all levels should determine through face to face

discussions and review of contract files the level of experience for

every employee under their supervision.

Supervisors are responsible for ensuring the continued vitality of their

organization. One important aspect of an organization described as having vitality is that

workers have the requisite skills, expertise and experience to accomplish the mission.

Through periodic meetings with employees and frequent review of their contract files,

supervisors will develop a comprehensive understanding of each employee’s strengths

and weaknesses. Employee strengths can be matched with employee weaknesses.

2. Organizations should be encouraged to link knowledge transfer

between employees to the strategic goals of the organization.

It is imperative that an organization understands its strategic goals before

developing a knowledge management system. Transfer of knowledge starts with an

understanding of what needs to be transferred and learned within an organization, which

has that knowledge and the best methods of transfer. Transfer methodology needs to be

specific for the knowledge to be transferred.

3. Organizations should periodically reassess their knowledge

management strategies to ensure continued efficacy.

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Even the most closely aligned strategic initiative needs to be periodically assessed

to ensure continued alignment. The example used in Chapter IV was the three structural

changes the CECOM Acquisition Center made to improve alignment with the changing

environmental factors.

4. Contracting activities should foster an environment where

experienced contracting officers and contract specialists want to

transfer their knowledge to newer employees and those without the

experience.

Maintaining a positive corporate culture should include incentivizing workers to

share and transfer knowledge with their coworkers. Incentives could include a simple

letter of recognition, a monetary award or even time off. Although incentivizing an

employee to do that which management expects without incentives may seem

unorthodox, it is really no different than when the Government incentives contractors to

perform beyond basic requirements.

5. Organizations should be encouraged to take a systems approach to

developing a knowledge management system.

The last twenty years has seen many beneficial management concepts, like Total

Quality Management and Management By Objective, fail because they lacked an

enterprise-wide framework and systems perspective. Today, a better-engineered

knowledge management system will utilize a systematic framework of key elements

which design and implement effective knowledge management programs, processes and

initiatives.

D. ANSWERS TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following primary and subsidiary research questions were addressed in the

course of this study. Each question and its answer are provided below.

1. How can contracting organizations be improved by incorporating

knowledge management as a strategic initiative?

This question requires a response from three perspectives: the organization, the

employee, and the customer. From the organization’s standpoint, incorporating

knowledge management assists the organization in meeting its mission. When an

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organization incorporates knowledge management as a strategic initiative it means the

organization aligned its knowledge management systems to priorities by focusing on the

activities and initiatives that maximize the organization’s value propositions to its

customers, thereby achieving an enhanced understanding of common expectations of

those customers which fosters customer loyalty and trust. A knowledge management

initiative also assists with the propagation of knowledge throughout the organization,

which is vital to the health, and survival of the organization. By propagating knowledge

throughout the organization the organization gains efficiencies and those efficiencies

allow the organization to take on more mission, more customers or both.

In an organization that employs a knowledge management strategic initiative,

employees should gain skills, expertise and experience more quickly which will allow

them to engage in more complex and challenging work sooner than without a knowledge

management strategic initiative. The flow of communications in all directions should be

improved, as should employee recognition. When employees are satisfied with their

work environment, they are less apt to seek employment elsewhere. Since recruitment

cost is high, a high retention rate results in cost avoidances, which can be plowed back

into technology enhancements, which will further improve employee knowledge.

Customers that are served by organizations with knowledge management strategic

initiatives should benefit through more effective channels of communications,

collaborative behaviors and long-term relationship building.

2. What is knowledge management?

As Karl Wiig stated, in 1993: “Knowledge management is the systematic,

explicit, and deliberate building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize an

enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and return from its knowledge assets.”

3. What are the elements of a knowledge management system?

Generally, there are four elements of a knowledge management system, they are:

(1) delineating the environment, (2) designing in a leadership, organization, technology,

and learning, (3) determining the measurable core strategic objectives and finally, (4)

determining process flows.

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4. Can the benefits of knowledge management be measured within the

Communications Electronics Acquisition Center?

Based on the literature review and the research conducted in this study it is

apparent that a direct link between expenditures on knowledge management and the value

of knowledge management cannot be established. However, until a direct correlation can

be established, it is important that organizations continue to develop adequate

performance measurements that link the value of knowledge management efforts

expended to the successful completion of strategic goals. If that means using anecdotal

stories, perceptual measures, a financial metric or simply through counting tool usage that

needs to continue.

5. How can the results of this study be generalized and applied to other

acquisition organizations and processes?

This research developed an eight-step knowledge management system model that

could be applied by any contracting activity. The organization would begin by (1)

reviewing its mission and vision; (2) developing its value propositions, (3) linking its

value propositions to customers; (4) designing an organizational structure that can deliver

its strategic initiatives to its customers, partners, stakeholders and employees, (5) develop

the technologies that can deliver the ten functional information capabilities; (6) design in

learning behaviors, (7) design in process flows that link back to the structure of the

organization and its operations, and finally (8) define measurable core strategic

objectives.

E. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

1. Further develop the Knowledge Management framework

A key to developing and institutionalizing an effective and dynamic Knowledge

management system will be in implementing a formal progress and maturity framework

for the organization. Follow-on research is necessary to formalize the framework and

apply the key initiatives of this research.

2. Identify and develop the required metrics to assess a Knowledge

Management System’s Value

73

With the desired Knowledge Management goals to solve organizational issues and

the expected benefits now understood, individual metrics must be designed to capture

relevant, complete and timely effects of knowledge management systems.

3. Identify and develop specific processes

Identify and develop specific processes to support a Knowledge Management

System. Processes should be evaluated and tested to support a Knowledge Management

System and structure.

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75

APPENDIX A. NCMA’S CONTRACTING PRINCIPLES FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL

COMPETENCIES

A. NCMA’S CONTRACTING PRINCIPLES FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES

Foundational Subject Matter Task Level Contracting Principles Standards of conduct Ethics

Conflicts of Interest Improper Practices

Laws and regulations Contract Formation Agency

Federal Statutes Federal Regulations

Uniform Commercial Code Socioeconomic Programs Small Business Concerns

Small and Disadvantaged Business Concerns Labor Surplus Area Environmental Issues Labor Laws

Contract Types Fixed Price Cost Reimbursement

Other Types Contracting Methods Sealed Bidding Two-Step Sealed Bidding

Negotiations Simplified Acquisitions Federal Supply Schedules

Electronic Commerce Contract Financing Generally Accepted

Accounting Principles Cost Principles Cost Accounting Standards Payments Audits

Intellectual property Patent Data Copyright

76

B. NCMA’S ACQUISITION PLANNING/STRATEGY FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES

Foundational Subject Matter Task Level

Acquisition Planning & Acquisition Planning Market Research Srategy Acquisition Strategy Acquisition Plan Source Selection Plan Solicitation Invitation For Bids (IFBs)

Request For Technical Proposal (RFTP) Request for Proposal (RFP) Request For Quotation (RFQ) Broad Agency Announcements

Proposal Preparation Bid or No-bid Decision Technical/Management Proposal Cost Proposal Unsolicited Proposal

Sole Source Negotiation Fact Finding Setting Objectives Strategy and Tactics Source Selection Organization Evaluation Procedures Discussions Debriefings Protests Forums Alternative Disputes

Resolution Procedures

77

C. NCMA’S CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES


Contract Administration Quality Assurance Inspection Acceptance Warranty

Subcontract Management Privity of Contract Make-or-Buy-Program Consent to Subcontracts Contractor’s Purchasing System Review

Modifications Change Orders Supplemental Agreements Constructive Changes Administrative Changes

Property Administration Property Control System Records and Reports

Transportation Modes of Transportation Transportation Related Services

Disputes Forums Alternative Disputes Resolution Procedures Extraordinary Contractual Relief

Contract Closeout Physical Completion Administrative Closeout

Contract Termination Convenience Termination Default Termination

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D. NCMA’S SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES


Specialized Knowledge Research and Development R&D Contract Grant Cooperative Agreement

Independent Research and Development

A&E Services/Construction A&E Selection Process Standard Procurement

Process Design/Build

Information Technology Network Systems Telecommunications Electronic Commerce Enterprise Resource Planning

Systems Major Systems System Acquisition Process Program Management PM – Contracting Officer

Relationship Services Advisory and Assistance

Services Personal Services

International Contracting Agreements and Restrictions Export Controls Foreign Military Sales State and Local Government Authority Organization Intergovernmental Relations

79

E. NCMA’S GENERAL BUSINESS FOUNDATIONAL, SUBJECT MATTER AND TASK LEVEL COMPETENCIES


General Business Management Principles Systems and Processes Human Relations Organizational Behavior

Organizational Communication

Marketing Organizational/Industrial Marketing Product/Service Planning Promotion Pricing

Operations Management Production/R&D/Services Logistics

Procurement Finance Corporate Financial Reporting Financial Analysis Accounting Managerial Cost Auditing Budgeting Economics Principles Managerial Micro Macro Quantitative Methods Statistics Deterministic Models Stochastic Models Information Science Information Management Programming Database Management

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81

LIST OF REFERENCES

1. Newing, Rod. “From The Ancient Greek To Modern Databases: Culture and

Origins.” The Financial Times, April 28,1999

2. Wiig, Karl M. “Knowledge Management Foundations Vol 1, 2 and 3. Schema

Press, 1993

3. Stewart, Thomas, “Brainpower.” Fortune, April 1991

4. Wiig, Karl M. “Knowledge Management: Where Did It Come From And Where

Will It Go?” Expert Systems with Applications – Programmer Press/Elsevier Vol

14 (Fall 1997)

5. Nonaka, Ikujiro and Hirotaka Takeuchi. “The Knowledge Creating Company”

Oxford University Press 1995.

6. Davenport, Thomas and Laurence Prusak “Working Knowledge. How

Organizations Manage What They Know.” Harvard Business School Press, 1998

7. Hope, Jeremy and Robin Fraser “Beyond Budgeting…Breaking Through The

Barrier To The Third Wave.” Management Accounting, 1997

8. Hibbard, J “Knowing What We Know” Information Week, 20 October 1997

9. Stankosky, Michael; A. “A Theoretical Framework” Special Millennium Issue

KM World, 2000

10. Bruce, David L., Marlys Norby and Victor Ramos “Guide To The Contract

Management Body Of Knowledge (MCBOK) 1st Edition, National Contract

management Association, September 2002

11. CECOM Regulation 10-1

12. Kontzer, T. “Search On,” Information Week No 923, 20 January 2003

13. Gilchrist, A. “Corporate Taxonomies: Report On A Survey Of Current Practices,”

Online Information Review, Vol 25, No 2

82

14. Varian, H and P. Lyman, “How Much Information,”

http://www.sims.berkley.edu/how-much-info/index-html, 2000

15. Davenport, Thomas, J Harris, D. De Long and A. Jacobson, “Data To Knowledge

To Results: Building An Analytic Capability,” California Management Review,

Vol 43, No 2, Winter 2001

16. General Accounting Office Report, GAO-01-565T, released 29 March 2001,

“Human Capital: Major Human Capital Challenges At The Departments Of

Defense and State”

17. “Shaping The Civilian Acquisition Workforce.

http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/report1000.pdf, October 2000

18. Frey, Kimberly, Naval Postgraduate School Thesis: “The Changing Face Of The

Contracting Professional in the Department of Defense, December 2001

19. Elgart, Edward G. “Source Selection Evaluation Criteria,”

https://www.kc.us.army.mil/ssecka.nsf/Kmap?OpenView

20. Calabrese, Francesco, “A Suggested Framework Of Key Elements Defining

Effective Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management Programs,” The George

Washington University, 2000

21. Despres, Charles and Daniele Chauvet, “A Thematic Analysis of the Thinking In

Knowledge Management, The Thesues Institute, 1999

22. Senge, Peter M. “The Fifth Discipline – The Art of Learning Organization>”

Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1990

23. Tedeschi, Kenneth L., Contracting Officer, CECOM Acquisition Center, Fort

Monmouth, NJ. Interview, June 2001.

24. Welsh, Robert A. “The Procurement Manager of the Future.” Contract

management, July-August 1997

25. CECOM Acquisition Center, Appreciative Interviews with various customers,

Spring 2000.

83

26. Kaplan, Robert S. and David P. Norton, “The Balanced Scorecard: Translating

Strategy Into Action,” Harvard Business School Press, 1993

27. CECOM Acquisition Center Strategic Plan, 2001

28. The GartnerGroup, “KM Benefits: From Building Productivity to Creating

Wealth,” GartnerGroup RAS Services, 2000

29. Geisler, Eliezer, “Harnessing The Value of Experience in the Knowledge-Driven

Firm,” Business Horizons, May-June 1999.

30. Halliday, Terrance C, “Beyond Monopoly,” University of Chicago, 1987

31 Davenport, Thomas and J. Glaser, “Just in Time Delivery Comes to Knowledge

Management,” Harvard Business Review, July 2002

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INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST

1. Defense Technical Information Center

Fort Belvior, Virginia

2. Dudley Knox Library

Naval Postgraduate School

Monterey, California

3. Professor David V. Lamm, Code SBPP/Lt



4. Professor Donald Summers, Code



5. Joseph DiGiacomo, CECOM Acquisition Center

ATTN: AMSEL-AC-CC

Fort Monmouth, New Jersey

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